This week we're diving into THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans — the runaway debut novel that's sold over a million copies, hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, won the 2026 PEN/Hemingway Award, and is officially heading to the big screen with Jane Fonda attached to star.

Told entirely through letters and emails, the novel follows Sybil Van Antwerp — a sharp-tongued, fiercely private retired lawyer in her 70s who uses correspondence to make sense of her world. She writes to authors, neighbors, suitors, a customer service rep at a DNA testing company, her estranged daughter… and one mysterious recipient whose letters she never sends.

We're unpacking it all: why we were both skeptical of the epistolary format and how quickly the book won us over, Sybil as a complicated mother and an even more complicated woman, the DNA test storyline, the suitors (RIP Theodore's cat 💔), the gut-punch storyline with Desi and his father, the burden of grief Sybil has carried for decades, and what we hope the Jane Fonda film keeps intact.

Plus: our full fancast for the adaptation, our ratings, and a peek at the 15-ish books Sybil mentions throughout the novel — basically a built-in TBR list.

📖 Up next on the pod: HALF HIS AGE by Jennette McCurdy

⚠️ Spoiler warning: this is a full-book discussion. Read it first, then come hang.

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