The Correspondent: The Story Behind the Unexpected Bestseller Everyone is Reading

August 20, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

When Virginia Evans wrote The Correspondent inside a bathroom closet during the pandemic, she had no intention of showing it to anyone. She told her agent she was "cleansing her palette" before writing something publishable. The book went on to sell over two billion copies, propelled entirely by word of mouth — a phenomenon that "does not happen," as Oprah put it. The story of a 70-year-old retired lawyer named Sybil Van Antwerp who writes letters became an unexpected number one New York Times bestseller. But the path there took twenty years and seven unpublished novels.

The Twenty-Year Overnight Success

Evans started writing her first novel at 19 while living in Siena, Italy. She finished it, then wrote another, then another — without knowing what to do with them. She didn't come from a family of authors and didn't know any. She eventually taught herself how to write a query letter using a writer's almanac "like the phone book." The rejections came in the hundreds. By her sixth novel, she got an agent, worked with her for a year, then they parted ways. "That was extremely crushing," Evans said. "I thought that was it."

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What you'll learn

1 The Oprah Podcast: The Story Behind *The Correspondent*
2 (00:00) **Opening: The Word-of-Mouth Phenomenon** - Oprah introduces *The Correspondent*, a debut novel that became a #1 New York Times bestseller through word of mouth alone
3 (02:17) **Guest Introduction: Virginia Evans** - The author joins Oprah to discuss her twenty-year journey to becoming an "overnight success"
4 (03:53) **The 20-Year Writing Journey** - Virginia Evans reveals this is her first published novel but her eighth completed book
5 (05:41) **Handling Rejection** - Evans explains how she processed years of rejection without losing belief in herself
6 (07:40) **The Turning Point: Ireland and the Closet** - After the sixth book failed, Evans moved to Dublin and wrote her seventh novel as coursework at Trinity College
7 (10:58) **How Sybil Arrived** - Evans describes the character coming to her "fully formed"

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

BUY THE BOOK!

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

https://amzn.to/4xasavH

Oprah sits down with Virginia Evans, author of the story readers can’t stop talking about: The Correspondent. Selling over two million copies and translated into over 35 languages it’s the book that has captured readers. Although it's her first published novel, it's the eighth book Virginia's written and one she never intended anyone else to read. When The Correspondent debuted it sold fewer than 8,000 copies. However, readers who discovered it fell in love and began recommending the novel to others, turning this book into a word-of-mouth phenomenon and a New York Times bestseller. Virginia shares the remarkable story behind the book she never expected to publish. Listeners will discover why Sybil Van Antwerp—a complex, prolific letter writer in her seventies—has resonated so deeply with readers of all ages. Oprah also speaks with readers around the country who have questions for Virginia.

00:00:00 - Welcome Virginia Evans, author of ‘The Correspondent’

00:04:00 - Her 20 year journey to getting published

00:07:10 - Questioning if she would ever publish

00:08:46 - How she wrote the book

00:12:00 - How the main character came to Virginia

00:14:55 - Oprah's favorite passage

00:16:16 - What letter writing allows us to say

00:19:50 - What we learn from other letters

00:25:30 - Does a letter need a reply?

00:30:00 - Loneliness

00:34:20 - Writing what you’re afraid of

00:39:40 - What she wants listeners to do