Virginia Evans and the Art of Writing Letters

The Book Case

ABC News

Fiction, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.7 • 913 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Occasionally, a book comes into your life that is a revelation. And The Correspondent by Virginia Evans was one of these books for us. A masterful epistolary novel in which the protagonist, a retired lawyer named Sybil, corresponds with…well, anyone and everyone. It’s an incredible read. Trust us. Don’t miss this great conversation with a wonderful writer. And to sweeten the pot? We also talk to The Vermont Bookstore. Join us. Find books mentioned on The Book Case: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/shop/story/book-case-podcast-reading-list-118433302 Books mentioned on this week's episode: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans 84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff The White Album by Joan Didion Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Commonwealth by Ann Patchett Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Moby Dick by Herman Melville East of Eden by John Steinbeck The Boy From The Sea by Garrett Carr Warlight by Michael Ondaatje Is a River Alive? By Robert Macfarlane Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Joyride by Susan Orlean COMING 10/14/25 Heart the Lover by Lily King COMING 9/20/25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm John Quignores.
0:02.0	Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old soldier,
0:05.0	vanishes while on duty at an Army base in Texas.
0:09.0	Her family demands answers.
0:12.0	How can she go missing on a military base?
0:14.0	That's too ridiculous.
0:16.0	The search goes on for months.
0:19.0	Where is Vanessa? And a dark story starts to unfold.
0:25.6	She told her family that she was being sexually harassed
0:29.6	and wasn't reporting it out of fear of retribution and retaliation.
0:34.6	What investigators finally uncover is horrifying.
0:40.0	Find out how one soldier, a beloved sister and daughter, ignited a movement and sparked
0:46.5	a reckoning in the U.S. military.
0:50.0	Listen to Vanished.
0:51.7	What happened to Vanessa?
0:53.6	A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Listen now,
0:58.1	wherever you get your podcasts.
1:08.1	Well, hello there, boys and girls. It's time for the bookcase with Kate and Charlie Gibson.
1:14.2	And it's good to have you with us again.
1:16.0	Kate, it's good to see you again.
1:18.0	Yes, indeed.
1:18.8	Boys, girls, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, snakes, cockroaches, whoever's listening.
	...

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