I read The Correspondent by Virginia Evan’s after seeing it everywhere this August and absolutely loved it. It’s a beautifully written, clever book that stayed with me. Shockingly, given how good it is, it is also the author’s debut.

There’s not a word of dialogue in this novel, written entirely of letters from and to protagonist Sybil, who is in her seventies and busy reaching out to her oldest friends, her brother, her children, her neighbour, a son of a friend, customer service agents and many more besides. It is in this way that we get to know Sybil, her quirks and peculiarities, her kindness and her openness to new experiences despite her attempts to stay removed from the world.

We learn early on that Sybil has lost a child and sense that her stubbornness and insularity is a protective coating designed to keep her one step removed. The persistence of those around her means that this doesn’t get in the way of a range of deep and lyrical relationships with all sorts of people and she finds her life opening up and up as her eyesight begins to fail, in ways she never could have imagined.

This is such an uplifting tale of courage, forgiveness and understanding that it left me with a renewed faith in humanity.