95: Carlo Gebler talks to Virginia Evans about The Correspondent

Send us Fan MailEpistolary novels used to be all the rage Think Clarissa, think Dracula, think the more recent We need to talk about Kevin. Last year saw another smash hit epistolary novel, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, published to wide acclaim and stellar sales, and shortlisted for the 2026 Women’s Fiction prize . Three times a week, 73-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp sits down at her desk in her Maryland home to write her letters. Her correspondence has been, as she puts it, "the mainstay of my life". Virginia was in Dublin this June  for the Carlow University Pittsburgh's MFA in Creative Writing Program residency at Trinity College, Dublin and we’re thankful to poet and program director Tess Barry for allowing us to feature this interview on Books for Breakfast. The interviewer is noted writer Carlo Gebler who was also Virginia’s mentor during the year she spent on the creative writing MPhil in Trinity. So grab a coffee and sit back and listen to Carlo Gebler and Virginia Evans. 'A warm, funny gem of a novel'LAURA HACKETT, THE TIMES'Masterful . . . I was delighted and moved'NEW YORK TIMES 'Immensely enjoyable'GUARDIAN'The year's breakout novel no one saw coming'WALL STREET JOURNALIntro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.Support the show