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Penguin Michael Joseph acquires Virginia Evans' 'life-affirming' debut novel
Penguin Michael Joseph has acquired the "life-affirming" epistolary debut novel by Virginia Evans. Senior commissioning editor Lily Cooper bought UK and Commonwealth rights to The Correspondent from Rachel Berkowitz at Penguin Random House USA.
In North America, Amy Einhorn at Crown pre-empted world rights. To date, translation rights have sold in Germany, in a pre-empt, Italy, France, Brazil and Ukraine. Penguin Michael Joseph will publish across all formats on 15th May 2025. Crown will publish in the US on 6th May 2025.
The novel follows Sybil Van Antwerp as she sits down around 10.30am to write to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books. At 73, Sybil has used her letters to make sense of the world and her place in it—that is, until she receives letters from someone in her past, and it forces her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.
Cooper said: “I cherished every moment spent with Sybil, a character so vivid and funny I wished I could correspond with her myself! With echoes of Helene Hanff and Elizabeth Strout, Virginia has crafted an uplifting, life-affirming gem of novel about life, loss and the possibility of love and forgiveness after tragedy—both toward the people around us, but most importantly, toward ourselves. Prepare to call all the people you love when you’ve finished it.”
Einhorn said: “To read The Correspondent is to fall head over heels with Sybil, a 73-year-old cantankerous, whip-smart, rude, loving and wise woman. We all should be so lucky to have a Sybil in our life.”
Evans said: “Correspondence has been one of the great pleasures of my life. A letter going out is a chance to say something meaningful with permanence, and it’s always that delightful thrill when you open the box and find a note with your handwritten address. I wrote The Correspondent during a very difficult stretch of years. I took everything hard and wonderful that happened and dumped it, somewhat furiously, into this book. Sometimes, when I’m moving through the day, having my coffee or cooking or talking with my family, things Sybil said return to me with the ring of truth. I really did grow to love her, and hope readers will too.”
The Correspondent will be published in hardback on 15th May 2025.
