I Will Always Write Back

I Will Always Write Back is a dual-perspective memoir written by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda, with Liz Welch as a contributing author. The New York Times bestselling memoir was published in 2015. Through alternating narratives, Caitlin and Martin tell the story of how they became pen pals in 1997 and eventually lifelong friends. The memoir features excerpts from real-life letter correspondences between the two narrators as well as their present-day accounts of past events.

Plot Summary

Caitlin Alifirenka is a student at Pennfield Middle School in Pennsylvania when her class is issued an assignment to select a pen pal from another country. Caitlin selects Zimbabwe, as she wants to learn about a place that is unfamiliar to her. In the town of Mutare in Zimbabwe, Martin is one of the few students who receives a pen-pal letter from the US. He receives Caitlin’s letter and writes her back, beginning a regular correspondence over shared music tastes and cultural exchanges. They promise to write each other regularly, no matter what happens.

While Caitlin assumes that Martin is a middle-class person like herself, she eventually realizes that Martin’s life in Zimbabwe is not so fortunate. During their correspondence, Martin’s father loses his job and the family struggles to come up with the funds to keep Martin in school. This devastates Martin, who has big dreams to finish his O-level exams and move into A-levels for a chance at studying at a US university. He can no longer afford postage to write Caitlin, taking odd jobs wherever he can find them to help feed his family. When Martin stops responding to Caitlin’s letters, she realizes something is wrong. After Martin realizes that he can no longer earn enough money himself to finish his semester of school, he decides to ask Caitlin for money. Caitlin begins to send Martin some of the money she earns while babysitting. When it becomes too much to do on her own, she finally enlists the help of her parents, who start to send Martin money as well. The money that Caitlin’s parents send allows Martin to complete his semester and register for O-level exams. He completes his exams with the highest score in his school across all nine subjects.

When Martin’s headmaster tells him that attending the Marist Brothers school in Nyanga, a private boarding school, would be a way of guaranteeing his admission to a US university, Martin does everything he can to attend the school. He manages to borrow money from his cousin, Alois, to pay the deposit for a semester at Marist Brothers. Eventually, through hard work, Martin gains a scholarship to attend the Marist Brothers school. During this time, Caitlin’s mother communicates with Martin more regularly about US college admissions and scholarship prospects. She tells Martin about registering for the SAT. She begins to explore scholarship opportunities at colleges in Pennsylvania, encouraging Caitlin to do the same. Meanwhile, Caitlin experiences personal growth through her family’s support of Martin’s journey. Inspired by Martin’s passion and hard work, she makes the decision to go to nursing school.

While Caitlin and her mother are initially confident about Martin’s chances of getting a scholarship to a US university, the process proves more challenging than they thought. Although Caitlin’s mother has shared Martin’s heartfelt story with many colleges, these institutions are only able to offer partial scholarships, which is not enough. When college acceptances and rejections start to arrive, Martin does not receive a full scholarship from any of the colleges he has applied to. In a final effort, Caitlin’s mother shares Martin’s story with the president of Villanova University, in the hopes that it may move the university to provide Martin with a full scholarship. To Caitlin and her mother’s surprise, the president of Villanova University agrees to a full scholarship on the condition that Martin arrives in time for the start of the fall semester.

As Martin nervously awaits the one-way ticket that Caitlin’s parents have bought for him, a delivery issue leads to the ticket’s delay. After Caitlin’s father intervenes with the airline, Martin is able to board his flight in time to arrive in the US as planned. When Caitlin and Martin meet for the first time, they are overjoyed, and refer to each other as family.

In the narrative’s present, Martin reveals that he successfully completes his education at Villanova University, where he works several part-time jobs to afford to buy a house for his family in Zimbabwe. He also pursues his MBA at Duke University and eventually becomes an analyst for an investment banking firm. Meanwhile, Caitlin gets married to Dzmitry and has two children with him. She becomes a registered nurse and continues to live in Pennsylvania. Their story inspires many others to perform small acts of kindness.