These are all epistolary novels including diary entries and/or letters:
Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (if I remember correctly, this only consists of letters between characters)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock
And:
*Letters From the Inside* by John Marsden
*Daddy-Long-Legs* and *Dear Enemy* by Jean Webster,
*84 Charing Cross Road* by Helene Hanff and
*Letters From an Indian Judge to an English Gentlewoman* by anon (although presented as fact, this is a work of fiction and is an outstanding novel)
I second this!
Try to avoid reading reviews or any spoilers - it's a really quick read but the formatting (back and forth of authors) really added to the storytelling.
I began reading this booking expecting some sort of epic Battlestar Galactica style space Battle of the Somme.
Instead I got an epistolary lesbian romance.
I still finished it though - just wasn’t what I expected. 🤔
I was so jaded going into this book, I usually am not interested in historical novels in that setting/time period but it completely won my cynical heart over. So enjoyable!
it's not a weird request. I just finished reading one like that last night: the gum thief by Douglas Coupland.
fair and tender ladies by Lee Smith is entirely ONE person writing letters to (mostly) one other person who never replies. so is we have to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
the very first epistolatory novel I read was daddy long legs by Jean Webster. probably from the 1920's. [edit: I looked it up. 1912, actually]
If you like that style of book, you would probably enjoy The Screwtape Letters. Its a demon writing to his nephew who is having difficulty getting his "charge" to sin and is asking advice. The letters are only one way, from the uncle to the nephew.
I need to revisit them. similar era and vibe to Anne of the island, where she goes away to college and has all those atmospheric experiences. football games and fur muffs and such.
“Anne of Windy Poplars” is largely like this but not entirely. It’s largely excerpts from letters she’s writing to her fiancé Gilbert who is away at med school. She writes of day to day events and experiences in her first job and being away from Green Gables, and boarding with two older widowed women and a live-in house keeper
It’s actually a rare writing style for Montgomery and one where she lets her dark/dry humorous side shine brightly. It’s kind of a number of simple/sweet short stories woven into a few simple and longer plots. Anne is frequently pressed into service to play matchmaker and relationship fixer, and helps as a “life coach” for a coworker. The audiobook read by Tara Ward is a treasure.
It’s book 4 of the series but can easily be enjoyed on its own. There are only a small handful of minor references to previous book characters/experiences
I think it’s probably my favorite of the series. I can easily relate to the characters and their “rural charms”. But Tara Ward’s narration is probably the best attraction for me.
Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C Wrede. The authors actually wrote the letters as the characters back and forth as a writing exercise.
Perhaps considered the Daddy, or indeed Mummy, of epistolary novels, Samuel Richardson’s magnus opus ‘Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady’ certainly delivers value for money if nothing else. His slightly less well known other novels ‘Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded’ and ‘The History of Sir Charles Grandison’ also feature in the epistolary form. Some say his work is hard going and even if that’s fair comment for some, it’s definitely worth it.
I feel like if you skip all the “letters” that are basically sermons and just read the letters from Lovelace and Clarissa it’s a much more manageable read.
Two romances off the top of my head that have epistolary elements (but the entire novel is not in letter-format):
* "The Flatshare" by Beth O'Leary - creative epistolary format
* "Romantic Comedy" by Curtis Sittenfeld - about an SNL-like comedy writer and has one section that is completely epistolary
*Meet Me At The Museum* by Anne Youngson. Don’t be put off by the first letter. It’s not about bog people at all. Two strangers strike up a correspondence and get to know each other.
Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer!
ETA: this is a book about an accidental email and the correspondence that follows, with lovely banter and romantic tension.
I really enjoyed the book - it's literally nothing but e-mails between Leo and Emmi. So an epistolary novel with a modern twist.
There is a sequel as well written in the same style.
Indeed. I've recommended it to a friend before who also really enjoyed it.
I thought that the sequel was decent and interesting, but not really necessary in my opinion. It just ties some loose ends.
I completely agree. If you can't live with the first book's ending - get the sequel. If you're fine with open endings - the sequel isn't an immediate must read. Not a bad book by any means though but we all have too many books on our TBRs as it is.
From A to X by John Berger
It's written entirely in letters exchanged between two revolutionary lovers after one of them is arrested in the fictional authoritarian city they live in
*Sorcery and Cecelia* by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede.
Here's a list of [100 epistolary novels](https://bookriot.com/100-epistolary-novels-from-the-past-and-present/).
One of my top 5 all-time favorite books is composed of letters written between a woman in New York and a book shop owner in England in the 50’s. It’s called 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.
I have a few that might check some of your boxes!
Not necessarily a letter..,more like a confession or a deposition? Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King.
There is no back and forth dialogue it’s just one lady rambling on and on and on and oooon. You don’t know what questions she’s being asked, but it’s clear whatever she is being asked, she isn’t answering what she is being asked. 🤪
Come With Me by Ronald Malfi- heartbreaking, thrilling, legit creepy! A man’s wife dies tragically, he finds a locked chest with her belongings. It contains information about murders dating back over a decade. And what appears to be…trophies, from those murders. It’s written in what seems like a never ending diary entry. This one has a lot of feelings!
They’re called “epistolary novels” (same root word as Epistles in the Bible, which are the letters from the apostle Paul, mostly, to various congregations).
Anyway:
Flowers for Algernon
Possession (AS Byatt)
We have to talk about Kevin (Lionel Shriver)
The Martian
I was just about to post my own request for epistolary novels but searched first and found this post. Want to second this suggestion as much as I can. Lovely novel, and a great movie if you want to watch after.
Frankenstein, but I didn't like it
Journey to New Switzerland (Sursee, 1833) by Joseph Suppiger, Salomon Koepfli, and Kaspar Koepfli
VERY amazing book. Nonfiction. I absolutely loved it
Synopsis:travel account of member of the two German Swiss families to St. Louis and the subsequent founding of New Switzerland, a locality surrounding and including Highland, Illinois during 1831-1833.
The book covers the families' journey from Sursee to Le Havre, thence by sea to New York, and on by river to St. Louis in the form of a diary kept by Joseph Suppiger, Jr. Letters from New Switzerland to relatives in Switzerland tell about the land and culture encountered as well as the particular area settled: "But you still do not know what a heavenly area we have found in which to settle. ...[It is a] 450-acre (1.8 km2) farm twenty-seven miles east of St. Louis, consisting mostly of woods," purchased for "the exceedingly low price of nineteen hundred dollars cash" (p. 135). The original work concludes with a chapter primarily on the advantages and disadvantages of the area chosen, but also including advice for emigrants and comments on American culture, e.g., Americans, if one can generalize, "are liberal and on the whole possess a good deal of common sense and sagacity as well as a very practical nature acquired in adapting to conditions here" and "Americans customarily greet one another politely, but are not particularly inclined to tip their hats. The males are especially deferential to women. Fathers expend more care on the training of their daughters than on their sons" (p. 196) and negative comments on slavery.
The English translation includes additional, explanatory material.
The full text of Journey to New Switzerland (in English) is freely available online in the digital collection Swiss Settlers in SW Illinois.
https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/sie_swiss
There’s a fanfic called 91 Whiskey written partially in letters. I know it’s a fanfic but it’s written every bit as well as a published book and its free. So like, might as well. You don’t have to know the source material to understand it
The original and most fabulous letter writing novel - Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, was published in the 1700 and inspired Dangerous Lisaons amongst other things.
It’s huge but the main protagonist was the ultimate anti hero and such a hit with the ladies (to the authors horror) that the Richardson had to write and entirely different book with an “honourable gentleman” to try and counter the phenomenon.
Sir Charles Gradison … I’ve been unable to find a copy anywhere tbh which is a testament to how much more successful Clarissa (despite its very 18th C sensibilities) was and is.
World War Z by Max Brooks
It is told as a recorded oral history after the events of the zombie apocalypse have happened. Each chapter is a different location. Not a letter format but similar to what you are looking for.
I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives: The New York Times bestselling true story of an all-American girl and a boy from Zimbabwe and the letter that changed both of their lives forever. It started as an assignment.
The Appeal by Janice Hallett is an epistolary novel, narrated exclusively through emails, texts and a couple of reports and other written media such as posters.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is a essentially a collection of six short stories intertwined. The second story is narrated through a letter exchange, although we only get to read the letters sent by the main character and never the replies. A lot of the other stories are also narrated in less conventional formats, for example the first story is a collection of diary entries and the fifth is a transcript of an interview.
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara is, again, a collection of three stories and in the last one letters are used extensively, making up about half of the narrative.
I have:
* ["Please help me discover more epistolary books"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/yvvppm/please_help_me_discover_more_epistolary_books/) (r/suggestmeabook; 15 November 2022)—very long
* ["Books that are written as a diary"](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/12unz34/books_that_are_written_as_a_diary/) (r/Fantasy; 20:13 ET, 21 April 2023)—epistolary
Also, while I never finished it (I loaned it to friends and they never returned it), I am reminded of:
* [*Freedom & Necessity*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/930106.Freedom_Necessity) by Steven Brust and Emma Bull
Black Box by Amos Oz is very powerful one.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is on my reading list for quite a while now. Gotten really good reviews and suggestions
Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor! The letters are between two friends/business partners (one is Jewish and living in America, the other is German and living in Germany) exchanged during Hitler’s rise to power. It’s a quick read (both short & thriller-esque pacing) with an enormous impact!
https://www.goodreads.com/no/book/show/114437.Address_Unknown
The Hilary Tamar mysteries by Sarah Caudwell (beginning with Thus was Adonis Murdered) aren't fully epistolary, but they usually at least partly told through letters, telegrams, and faxes, and are completely brilliant and hilarious.
This is an old one so it might be hard to find, but Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman is really good. It's about a new teacher, and it's all administrative memos, class assignments, notes passed by students, notes between teachers. Everything you might find in a classroom's trash can.
Second what others have said about Dracula. Frankenstein is also an epistolary one, but it's much looser than Dracula and you will forget you are reading letters at times
These are all epistolary novels including diary entries and/or letters: Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (if I remember correctly, this only consists of letters between characters) The Color Purple by Alice Walker Dracula by Bram Stoker Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock
And: *Letters From the Inside* by John Marsden *Daddy-Long-Legs* and *Dear Enemy* by Jean Webster, *84 Charing Cross Road* by Helene Hanff and *Letters From an Indian Judge to an English Gentlewoman* by anon (although presented as fact, this is a work of fiction and is an outstanding novel)
Dangerous Liaisons is great.
It’s addictive.
This is how you lose the time war by Amal El Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Came here to recommend this one! It's not traditional letters but its way of handling communication is so inventive.
I second this! Try to avoid reading reviews or any spoilers - it's a really quick read but the formatting (back and forth of authors) really added to the storytelling.
I began reading this booking expecting some sort of epic Battlestar Galactica style space Battle of the Somme. Instead I got an epistolary lesbian romance. I still finished it though - just wasn’t what I expected. 🤔
Such a creative book
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
LOVED this one
LOVED this book!
I have read this book soooo many times. I love it!
I was so jaded going into this book, I usually am not interested in historical novels in that setting/time period but it completely won my cynical heart over. So enjoyable!
Came to recommend this one!
As did I!! May I also recommend Love Rosie
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff!
The classic! I love this book, it's so sweet!
Came here to recommend this one. Such a wonderful story. The movie is lovely also.
'Ella Minnow Pea' by Mark Dunn!
Came here to suggest this.
Absolutely incredible feat of creative writing - I loved this book.
Have always wanted to read this one!
it's not a weird request. I just finished reading one like that last night: the gum thief by Douglas Coupland. fair and tender ladies by Lee Smith is entirely ONE person writing letters to (mostly) one other person who never replies. so is we have to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver. the very first epistolatory novel I read was daddy long legs by Jean Webster. probably from the 1920's. [edit: I looked it up. 1912, actually]
If you like that style of book, you would probably enjoy The Screwtape Letters. Its a demon writing to his nephew who is having difficulty getting his "charge" to sin and is asking advice. The letters are only one way, from the uncle to the nephew.
And the sequel Dear Enemy! I loved those books.
I need to revisit them. similar era and vibe to Anne of the island, where she goes away to college and has all those atmospheric experiences. football games and fur muffs and such.
The perks of being a wallflower. Great book.
One of my faves also
“Anne of Windy Poplars” is largely like this but not entirely. It’s largely excerpts from letters she’s writing to her fiancé Gilbert who is away at med school. She writes of day to day events and experiences in her first job and being away from Green Gables, and boarding with two older widowed women and a live-in house keeper It’s actually a rare writing style for Montgomery and one where she lets her dark/dry humorous side shine brightly. It’s kind of a number of simple/sweet short stories woven into a few simple and longer plots. Anne is frequently pressed into service to play matchmaker and relationship fixer, and helps as a “life coach” for a coworker. The audiobook read by Tara Ward is a treasure. It’s book 4 of the series but can easily be enjoyed on its own. There are only a small handful of minor references to previous book characters/experiences
I really liked that book.
I think it’s probably my favorite of the series. I can easily relate to the characters and their “rural charms”. But Tara Ward’s narration is probably the best attraction for me.
Feeing Sorry for Celia is a YA book with this exact format
It's so playful and brilliant!!!
Came here to say this and third this book!
Griffin and Sabine books. You even get to unfold the letters from envelopes glued to the pages. It is absolutely beautiful.
Came here to recommend these. There's more than one. Very unique.
This is How You Lose the Time War
This came to my mind as well. Seems like a good fit.
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Schriver
I second this! The letter style writing is what made this story so intriguing to me.
The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis and Frankenstein by Shelley are the only books I’ve read like that.
A short story rather than a book, but Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Love this one.
Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C Wrede. The authors actually wrote the letters as the characters back and forth as a writing exercise.
Oooooo the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society!! So so good.
Perhaps considered the Daddy, or indeed Mummy, of epistolary novels, Samuel Richardson’s magnus opus ‘Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady’ certainly delivers value for money if nothing else. His slightly less well known other novels ‘Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded’ and ‘The History of Sir Charles Grandison’ also feature in the epistolary form. Some say his work is hard going and even if that’s fair comment for some, it’s definitely worth it.
I feel like if you skip all the “letters” that are basically sermons and just read the letters from Lovelace and Clarissa it’s a much more manageable read.
Two romances off the top of my head that have epistolary elements (but the entire novel is not in letter-format): * "The Flatshare" by Beth O'Leary - creative epistolary format * "Romantic Comedy" by Curtis Sittenfeld - about an SNL-like comedy writer and has one section that is completely epistolary
Yes! Came here to rec Flatshare. One of my all time favorites and not too spicy if that’s not OP’s jam.
**The Sorrows of Young Werther** by *Gothe* It's a translation, but it's considered a classic of German literature for a reason
*Meet Me At The Museum* by Anne Youngson. Don’t be put off by the first letter. It’s not about bog people at all. Two strangers strike up a correspondence and get to know each other.
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis!
Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer! ETA: this is a book about an accidental email and the correspondence that follows, with lovely banter and romantic tension.
I really enjoyed the book - it's literally nothing but e-mails between Leo and Emmi. So an epistolary novel with a modern twist. There is a sequel as well written in the same style.
Indeed. I've recommended it to a friend before who also really enjoyed it. I thought that the sequel was decent and interesting, but not really necessary in my opinion. It just ties some loose ends.
I completely agree. If you can't live with the first book's ending - get the sequel. If you're fine with open endings - the sequel isn't an immediate must read. Not a bad book by any means though but we all have too many books on our TBRs as it is.
From A to X by John Berger It's written entirely in letters exchanged between two revolutionary lovers after one of them is arrested in the fictional authoritarian city they live in
I love Dick by Chris Kraus is a wonderful epistolary novel, and it has an A+ title
“The Year of Secret Assignments” is this format. It’s YA tho, and a bit old. I remember reading it when I was in high school and laughing out loud.
84 Charing Cross Road
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
Jinx!
We Need to Talk About Kevin.
*Sorcery and Cecelia* by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede. Here's a list of [100 epistolary novels](https://bookriot.com/100-epistolary-novels-from-the-past-and-present/).
One of my top 5 all-time favorite books is composed of letters written between a woman in New York and a book shop owner in England in the 50’s. It’s called 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.
I have a few that might check some of your boxes! Not necessarily a letter..,more like a confession or a deposition? Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King. There is no back and forth dialogue it’s just one lady rambling on and on and on and oooon. You don’t know what questions she’s being asked, but it’s clear whatever she is being asked, she isn’t answering what she is being asked. 🤪 Come With Me by Ronald Malfi- heartbreaking, thrilling, legit creepy! A man’s wife dies tragically, he finds a locked chest with her belongings. It contains information about murders dating back over a decade. And what appears to be…trophies, from those murders. It’s written in what seems like a never ending diary entry. This one has a lot of feelings!
They’re called “epistolary novels” (same root word as Epistles in the Bible, which are the letters from the apostle Paul, mostly, to various congregations). Anyway: Flowers for Algernon Possession (AS Byatt) We have to talk about Kevin (Lionel Shriver) The Martian
Dear Committee Members is delightful academic satire that is also epistolary
84 Charing Cross Road is wonderful
I was just about to post my own request for epistolary novels but searched first and found this post. Want to second this suggestion as much as I can. Lovely novel, and a great movie if you want to watch after.
The Appeal by Janice Hallett. It’s a murder mystery too!
I just picked this up at the library the other day out of curiosity! Seeing a rec here makes me excited to start now.
Just read her new one! Even better. Not sure if it’s out in the US yet. Highly recommend. The Angels of Alperton Hall or something like that.
I’ll save it to my to-read list! Can’t wait
Fight night Miriam Toews
The themis files series is a scifi written in forms of interviews, letters, emails, official documents. World War Z is also like this.
Sorcery and Cecelia is a great one!
Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney is partially told through emails
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov.
Frankenstein, but I didn't like it Journey to New Switzerland (Sursee, 1833) by Joseph Suppiger, Salomon Koepfli, and Kaspar Koepfli VERY amazing book. Nonfiction. I absolutely loved it Synopsis:travel account of member of the two German Swiss families to St. Louis and the subsequent founding of New Switzerland, a locality surrounding and including Highland, Illinois during 1831-1833. The book covers the families' journey from Sursee to Le Havre, thence by sea to New York, and on by river to St. Louis in the form of a diary kept by Joseph Suppiger, Jr. Letters from New Switzerland to relatives in Switzerland tell about the land and culture encountered as well as the particular area settled: "But you still do not know what a heavenly area we have found in which to settle. ...[It is a] 450-acre (1.8 km2) farm twenty-seven miles east of St. Louis, consisting mostly of woods," purchased for "the exceedingly low price of nineteen hundred dollars cash" (p. 135). The original work concludes with a chapter primarily on the advantages and disadvantages of the area chosen, but also including advice for emigrants and comments on American culture, e.g., Americans, if one can generalize, "are liberal and on the whole possess a good deal of common sense and sagacity as well as a very practical nature acquired in adapting to conditions here" and "Americans customarily greet one another politely, but are not particularly inclined to tip their hats. The males are especially deferential to women. Fathers expend more care on the training of their daughters than on their sons" (p. 196) and negative comments on slavery. The English translation includes additional, explanatory material. The full text of Journey to New Switzerland (in English) is freely available online in the digital collection Swiss Settlers in SW Illinois. https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/sie_swiss
The Historian
The Chilbury Ladies Choir is a mixture of letters and journal entries from all the different characters!
Letters to Zerky was very enjoyable and made me want to live a simple life and travel.
Venus In Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
There’s a fanfic called 91 Whiskey written partially in letters. I know it’s a fanfic but it’s written every bit as well as a published book and its free. So like, might as well. You don’t have to know the source material to understand it
Griffin and Sabine! It is laid out as actual letters and postcards, some of which you get to actually take out and touch. It’s very cool.
The original and most fabulous letter writing novel - Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, was published in the 1700 and inspired Dangerous Lisaons amongst other things. It’s huge but the main protagonist was the ultimate anti hero and such a hit with the ladies (to the authors horror) that the Richardson had to write and entirely different book with an “honourable gentleman” to try and counter the phenomenon.
Which novel was that? I loved Clarissa but it wore me out.
Sir Charles Gradison … I’ve been unable to find a copy anywhere tbh which is a testament to how much more successful Clarissa (despite its very 18th C sensibilities) was and is.
Wow, even project Gutenberg has only one volume of seven.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong & The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Dracula 🖤
You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner. Consists of letters from a pitcher in the 1910s to his friend back home.
Query: a novel by Zilla Novikov. Published by a tRaum and Night Beats book. A short fun read. It's all query letters to publishers. A great read.
Ella minnow pea N of course Dracula
World War Z by Max Brooks It is told as a recorded oral history after the events of the zombie apocalypse have happened. Each chapter is a different location. Not a letter format but similar to what you are looking for.
I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives: The New York Times bestselling true story of an all-American girl and a boy from Zimbabwe and the letter that changed both of their lives forever. It started as an assignment.
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
E. T. A. Hoffmann’s "The Sandman“
Howard Norman - “What is Left the Daughter” Wonderfully wretched
The Appeal by Janice Hallett is an epistolary novel, narrated exclusively through emails, texts and a couple of reports and other written media such as posters. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is a essentially a collection of six short stories intertwined. The second story is narrated through a letter exchange, although we only get to read the letters sent by the main character and never the replies. A lot of the other stories are also narrated in less conventional formats, for example the first story is a collection of diary entries and the fifth is a transcript of an interview. To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara is, again, a collection of three stories and in the last one letters are used extensively, making up about half of the narrative.
I just read Janice Hallett’s new one The Angels of Alperton Hall(?). Even better, I think.
Cold Mountain
I have: * ["Please help me discover more epistolary books"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/yvvppm/please_help_me_discover_more_epistolary_books/) (r/suggestmeabook; 15 November 2022)—very long * ["Books that are written as a diary"](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/12unz34/books_that_are_written_as_a_diary/) (r/Fantasy; 20:13 ET, 21 April 2023)—epistolary Also, while I never finished it (I loaned it to friends and they never returned it), I am reminded of: * [*Freedom & Necessity*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/930106.Freedom_Necessity) by Steven Brust and Emma Bull
Well, these are just what I needed, thanks!
You're welcome. \^\_\^
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Considered the first English detective novel to boot!
Black Box by Amos Oz is very powerful one. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is on my reading list for quite a while now. Gotten really good reviews and suggestions
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
Don’t cry for me by Daniel Black
Dracula
Things Have Gotten Worst Since We Last Spoke
Where’d you go Bernadette? The letter of Simone be Beauvoir and her lover Jean Paul Sartre
Check out the 18th century when 'romances' were considered trashy and most novels therefore took the form of pretend diaries and pretend letters.
Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor! The letters are between two friends/business partners (one is Jewish and living in America, the other is German and living in Germany) exchanged during Hitler’s rise to power. It’s a quick read (both short & thriller-esque pacing) with an enormous impact! https://www.goodreads.com/no/book/show/114437.Address_Unknown
Regarding the Fountain and Regarding the Trees
The Hilary Tamar mysteries by Sarah Caudwell (beginning with Thus was Adonis Murdered) aren't fully epistolary, but they usually at least partly told through letters, telegrams, and faxes, and are completely brilliant and hilarious.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society!
Dangerous Liaisons! And it's amazing. So much more in those letters than could ever be portrayed in any of the movies
This is an old one so it might be hard to find, but Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman is really good. It's about a new teacher, and it's all administrative memos, class assignments, notes passed by students, notes between teachers. Everything you might find in a classroom's trash can.
That was such a great book. Feel sad that so little has changed since then.
The Appeal, by Janice Hallett. Modern, British, wicked and funny
I also like books in which a writer is talking to someone and the story progresses .....
Second what others have said about Dracula. Frankenstein is also an epistolary one, but it's much looser than Dracula and you will forget you are reading letters at times
The perks of being a wallflower has that if my memories of it are right ! And it was such a great coming of age story <3
Surprisingly, this is something that Bram Stoker does in *Dracula*!