Author Event: Beka Wueste - The Unsent Letters of Lucy Prior

When Lucy Prior died, she left many of the possessions you’d expect to find in an average house, with the exception of a peculiar set of letters. These letters were never sent in her lifetime, and were left with the intention of having someone else decide if they should be sent, thrown away, or published. 

Written with the knowledge that her death was imminent, each chapter is a letter to an individual who played an influential role in Lucy’s life, with whom she had severed connections decades before she passed away. In the letters, she revisits and confronts formative moments throughout her childhood and early adulthood which she had largely repressed or intentionally hidden from even her closest relatives and friends.

The letters cause confusion among her surviving family, who have difficulty reconciling the intense emotions and deeply confessional contents with the woman they knew and loved. The project leaves her family wondering how much they actually understood her, or if they understood her at all, when she kept so much of her life secret from them. 

With each letter, Lucy’s estate manager must determine the value of sending a letter so long after the relationships came to an end. Some are thank you letters, others regrets or apologies, while the rest are condemnations. As the letters vary wildly, the estate manager discovers there is no clear criteria for deciding the benefit or harm in communicating with people who mattered, for better or for worse, in a person’s life.

This novel is ideal for book clubs and classroom discussions due to the epistolary format, and includes recommended questions for facilitators.