There are, as of this writing, more than 1,000 active holds on Virginia Evans’ 2025 novel “The Correspondent” at Madison Public Library. That does not include the large print version (549), the audio book (478) or the ebook (328).
The library owns 189 copies of this novel. What happens when the demand for a library book pushes wait times into the months?
“When there is demand for a library item, we purchase more copies!” Molly Warren, library collection manager, wrote to me earlier this week, just after I’d finished “The Correspondent” — picked up from the Bestseller shelf, after 10 weeks on hold…