Content Warning: This section of the guide includes cursing and descriptions of physical abuse. 

The letters that Rose Evans and Fionn Kane write to each other during their separation are symbolic of their love. The two are forced apart for seven months when Leander Mayes demands that Fionn take a contract-killing job in Croatia. Per the terms of the assignment, Fionn must live “a life in secret apart from [his] loved ones” (357), and he is forbidden from telling them of his whereabouts or activities. Throughout this difficult time, Fionn sends Rose a series of letters. Each one includes a different tarot card, which Fionn uses to communicate his complex feelings. The letters also end with the same professions and promise: “I love you. I’m not letting you go. I never will” (336). The letters thus have a romantic, confessional, and insistent tone, proving that Fionn is trying to maintain his connection with Rose despite the obstacles that separate them. He is also using the written word and the tarot cards to express his devotion to Rose.

The characters also write, exchange, and read new letters aloud during their three-week stay in Ellsworth.