The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel

Harold Fry receives a letter from an old friend and colleague that she is in hospice. Queenie, his old friend ,does not have long to live. Harold is so touched by the letter, that he sets off by foot, to visit her, without thinking clearly about the 100 mile walk he is embarking on. When Harold

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places a brief call to the hospice, a Sister there suggests to him that many dying people will hang on to life until seeing those dear to them. Thus Harold continues on his walk - or pilgrimage, to see his colleague.

Our protagonist is a 65 year old man, retired and in a stale and somewhat cold marriage. Something has gone awry with their son, but we are not privy to what that is until very close to the end of the book. As Harold walks each day , he reflects back on his childhood, marriage, how he failed his son and many other events in his life. As he walks he is joined by people from all " walks" of life. Each person affects him in different ways and helps evoke certain memories from Harold's life. These people also give him him hope and appreciation for life as they share small portions of their varied lives. Harold's world grows much broader.

I found myself underlining many passages of wisdom as I read the book . While I did not find the book to be sentimental, I challenge anyone who reads the book not to have tears in their eyes during the last pages in the book.

Although The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is long - listed for the Booker, I suspect it will not make the short list. That said, I found this to both the most uplifting and also heartbreaking book that I have read in a long time. I have my copy on a kindle, and I plan to pick up a paper copy so as to underline all of the passages that I so enjoyed. I also think that The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will find a very large audience. I plan to purchase several copies to give away as gifts.

A thoughtful , insightful, wonderful read , widely recommended.

4.25 stars

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Rating: 3* of five

The Book Description: Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail

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arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn’t seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.

Harold pens a quick reply and, leaving Maureen to her chores, heads to the corner mailbox. But then, as happens in the very best works of fiction, Harold has a chance encounter, one that convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. And thus begins the unlikely pilgrimage at the heart of Rachel Joyce’s remarkable debut. Harold Fry is determined to walk six hundred miles from Kingsbridge to the hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed because, he believes, as long as he walks, Queenie Hennessey will live.

Still in his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold embarks on his urgent quest across the countryside. Along the way he meets one fascinating character after another, each of whom unlocks his long-dormant spirit and sense of promise. Memories of his first dance with Maureen, his wedding day, his joy in fatherhood, come rushing back to him—allowing him to also reconcile the losses and the regrets. As for Maureen, she finds herself missing Harold for the first time in years.

And then there is the unfinished business with Queenie Hennessy.

A novel of unsentimental charm, humor, and profound insight into the thoughts and feelings we all bury deep within our hearts, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry introduces Rachel Joyce as a wise—and utterly irresistible—storyteller.

My Review: I take strong exception to the publisher's sales copy calling this book “unsentimental” because it most assuredly is as sentimental as it's possible for a story to be. It is Dickensian in its sentimentality. Anyone who has ever interacted with me will know I do not intend that as a compliment.

The Mouldering Mound of ~Meh~ is the natural home of this Grail quest. Sentimental encounters with many characters, all of whom unlock Harold's frozen memories (frozen, may I add, for excellent reasons that spoiler aversion forbids me to so much as hint at) and, in turn, leave Harold to his long walk being changed in their turn. So nothing new there.

The mildly humorous, mildly silly tone of the narrative is mildly pleasant, and Joyce makes every effort to be an engaging companion on Harold's walk with the reader. I got quite fed up with the book around p50, and soldiered on for one reason and one only: The MAN Booker people put it on the Prize list. It didn't win, obviously, but this got nominated? Why? Is there something on p310, p186, any whole number you can name up to 316, that will make this make sense to me?

No. No, there is not. It's all nice, pleasant, amusing, beige-carpet-and-cream-walls stuff. Don't even dream that there's an Ugly Secret lurking here. There's no monster in this lake, unless you subscribe to the theory that evil in its purest for is banal.

For all its banality, Joyce tells us about the anguish that lives in most hearts, and even roadmaps the way for the disconnected to reconnect. She's got the chops to make that happen without overt, eyerollingly hammy Declarations and Heart-to-Hearts, thank goodness. I said it was pleasant! But, well, it's just so....

Untoasted Wonder Bread with Velveeta, tuna salad, and cream gravy sound good to you? Here's you a book.

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Harold Fry has recently retired after working as a salesman for a local brewery for many years. He was competent but quiet, nondescript and largely anonymous to his co-workers. He lives with his wife Maureen in a modest home in Kingsbridge, a small village in South West England. Their marriage has

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been strained for years, as Maureen harbors bitterness and a deep seated hostility toward Harold, although she does not openly express a desire to leave him.

On one ordinary day Harold receives a letter from his former colleague Queenie Hennessy, who resides in a hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northernmost town in England. She informs him that she has end-stage cancer, and writes to say goodbye to him. Harold is deeply affected by this news, and he immediately writes a letter of sympathy to her. He leaves home to mail the letter, and in doing so he encounters a teenage girl who works at a garage. After Harold informs her of the purpose of his trip, she tells him about her aunt's case of cancer. He is led to believe that the girl's belief led her aunt to overcome her terminal illness. He is greatly inspired by this, and he spontaneously decides to walk from Kingsbridge to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a journey of over 500 miles, in the hope that doing so will cure Queenie.

As Harold walks, wearing only the street clothes, rain jacket and yachting shoes that he wore when he initially left the house, he reflects on his past mistakes in his relationship with his wife, their son David, and Queenie, who was fired from her job at the brewery in an incident that also involved him. He soon realizes that he has been an indifferent and reserved husband and father, unknowable to them, or to himself:

It occurred to him it was Maureen who spoke to David and told him their news. It was Maureen who had always written Harold's name ("Dad") in the letters and cards. It was even Maureen who had found the nursing home for his father. And it raised the question—as he pushed the button at the pelican crossing—that if she was, in effect, Harold, “then who am I?”

He encounters a variety of people on his journey, most of whom support and encourage him once he tells them his story, and they eagerly share their experiences with him. Maureen is initially furious at him after she learns about his decision, but later her feelings transform to jealousy, despair, concern, and longing for him.

As the journey becomes more arduous and the constant walking takes a toll on his mid-sixties body, his spirit begins to flag, and he wonders if he should have undertaken this foolhardy journey.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is meant to be an inspiring story of secular faith, self-discovery and love. However, I found it to be a banal and saccharine novel, which was largely pleasant but not one which was affecting or filled with wisdom, although the ending was easily the best part of the book. It, like Harold before his journey, was largely forgettable and mildly annoying in spots, and although it wasn't a bad book, it was the least favorite of the 2012 Booker Prize longlisted books I've read so far.

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Harold received a letter from Queenie a friend he had not heard from in many years. It was a good-bye letter because she had cancer. Harold wrote a rather dry reply and went to post it at the nearest mailbox while fighting emotions that began to re-surface to haunt him. This began an impossible

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journey on foot for hundreds of miles across England, and more particularly into his soul exploring deep personal truths of despair, love, angst, and compassion. What kept him going? He wanted to believe that if Queenie knew he was coming, she would hold on to life until he got there.

During his trek Harold made discoveries about himself, his family, and indeed humanity itself. Ill prepared to cover the distance that stretched between him and his dying friend, he struggled through a painful metamorphosis – both physically and spiritually. The reader is given bits of information along the way to unravel the real burden Harold carries.

This is a cleverly written book in its style and format. The important characters were well-drawn and though seemingly random in the story were strategic in the unfolding of the journey. Harold’s adventure did not progress in a straight line. The dangers of the terrain he covered on foot reflected the path he was following in his heart. Whether he made it or not is really beside the point. It’s an easy read, but a difficult pilgrimage.

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One day Harold Fry, a retiree getting on in years, sets off to post a letter of condolence to a former friend, Queenie Hennessey, who is dying of cancer. After 20 years of separation, all he could manage to say is, "I'm sorry." At the first letter box, he decides that he isn't quite ready to let go

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of it, so he walks to the next...then, the one after that...until a strange notion takes him: he drops the letter in the mail, goes into a phone booth and calls to say, "Tell Queenie I'm walking to see her and not to die before I get there." And so begins a 600 mile journey...in boat shoes...with only the vaguest idea of where he is going.

On one hand, this is a book that can be read as an allegory about life. Or, you might see it as a novel about faith—certainly that's how the publishers billed in their introduction to the advance reader copy. As I see it, however, it's a novel about a man finally connecting with his own humanity.

On the other hand, you can forego searching for meaning in it and read it simply as a tale of a journey that is, by turns, light-hearted, unsparing, comical, poignant and, generally, captivating. This isn't an action adventure—Harold is never mugged, nor does he stumble across Grail questers or a global conspiracy. While funny at times, it doesn't set out to be a comic piece. There's not even a lot of surprise; the twists that do occur in the plot are things you realize you somehow knew were coming all along. Instead, Joyce relies upon her capacity to convey what it means to be human...and she's rather good at that.

This isn't to say the book is without flaws. Some, though not all, of the secondary characters are a bit cliché. I found myself reminded of the movie Forrest Gump where characters sometimes come and go simply to fulfill a role rather than to be real people. Yet, there were other characters who surprised me with their humanity: the annoying neighbor who shows unexpected depths of loss or the immigrant physician who articulates the line between faith and hopelessness.

And, I will admit that, about two-thirds of the way through the book, Harold spends some time wandering aimlessly and my attention followed suit. However, he pulled himself together and pulled me back in before an ending that was fitting for this story.

Though she has some twenty radio plays to her credit, this is Rachel Joyce's first novel. In it she has created something that might not be labeled as grand or compelling, but which I picked up, read straight through until I was finished, and thought the time well-spent.

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This debut novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize the other day, and was the first of the 12 titles I decided to read. By the end, I was worried that I was having flashbacks to last year, when the novels were about readability rather than quality writing. Joyce is, in my mind, nothing beyond a

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normal commercial writer, and her novel left no real lasting impression. I'm not sorry I read it, but I'm not thrilled with it either.

The plot: Harold Fry, 65, living in a unhappy marriage, get a lette from an old colleague, Queenie, who is dying of cancer. Harold sets out to mail a reply back to Queenie, but he walks right past the nearest mailbox. Then he walks past another. And another. Finally Harold decides to walk the entire length of England to the hospice where Queenie is dying, in hopes that his faith in her can keep her alive.

Most of the novel is Harold's journey, and the people he meets along the way, and the lessons he learns from them. Some of the chapters focus on his wife, Maureen, left at home to try and understand what it is her husband is doing. I enjoyed Maureen as a character far more than Harold, and kind of wished that it had been her pilgrimage, rather than his.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was a quick read, and a sweet story, and I can see it appealing to a lot of readers. But the Booker is about the best in literature, and this certainly was not the best.

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This book is difficult for me to rate and, indeed, to evaluate more generally. At one level it's a bizarre fantastic romantic adventure and when I was telling my partner the plot of the book (when I was about 1/3 of the way through) I could see a growing look of incredulity on her face, but then

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she saw me become tearful and unable to talk about some of the events and relationships and she realized that this book is much more than that simple description - well to me it was, anyway. I suppose that's because the heart of this book is a story about a man who is at the depths of despair and yet he doesn't fully recognize this because he is just mechanically going through the routine of life. It is only when a letter comes to him from an old friend who tells him that she is dying, and this triggers his "pilgrimage", that he begins a journey of self examination. It's not a really intense book, and you can read it as an amusing and weird story, but if it connects to an insecure part of you which is not too dissimilar to a part of Harold Fry, then it takes on a new significance.

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“The letter that would change everything arrived on a Tuesday.”

Harold Fry is in a funk. He’s in his mid-60s, recently retired, stuck in a dull marriage. One day, he receives a letter from a work-friend, who he hasn’t seen in decades. It seems she is dying from cancer. He writes a letter,

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seals it and heads down to the corner mailbox, skips that box and continues onto the next one, as he begins to think about his friend and the shoddy life he leads. Dressed only in a light jacket and deck shoes, he suddenly decides to make a 600 mile journey across England and hand deliver the letter.
This is a “road trip” book. Harold discovering himself, reevaluating his past and meeting many different characters along the way. There are plenty of shining moments here and there are some plodding ones too. A few times, I felt like crying out-”Get there, already mate!” Most readers seem to love this book, so I’m in the minority here, but it’s still a worthy read and one I recommend.

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“I’m an ordinary chap, passing by. I’m not the sort who stands out in a crowd. And I don’t trouble anyone. When I tell people what I’m doing, they seem to understand.” (99)

Harold Fry, recently retired from his mundane job, lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen. He

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lives quietly, seeking no attention – so much so that he might be invisible. His wife is an unhappy and bitter woman, uncertain whether she has stayed with Harold because she is lonely, or because she pities him. The couple and their son, David, were a happy family once, but the memory is, sadly, a distant one. When Harold receives a letter from Queenie Hennessy, a woman with whom he worked but has not seen in twenty years, he sets out upon an unplanned walk of some six hundred miles – to the opposite end of England, to the hospice house in which Queenie is dying of cancer. He will meet numerous interesting and varied characters on his unlikely pilgrimage, which, rather predictably, becomes a journey of truth, acceptance, and, ultimately, freedom.

The novel is a decently written, accessible read, though I am not certain I would put it in the company of literature I think of as Booker-worthy. Still, it is not without its charms: an ordinary man on an extraordinary journey, humour, grief, healing, and human kindnesses.

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Harold get the news of of a colleague that are dying of cancer. He sets out to post a letter - and he decides in stead to walk to her and it turns out to be an eventful pilgrimage.

I liked this book best, when it was just Harold on the road by himself meeting strangers. These moments, these

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situations were truly wonderful - also his wife back home starting to open up to her neighbor. On his long walk we are also introduced to things of the past, slowly we discover truths that alter our perception of the characters. The relationship with his son being the main theme - a theme I didn't think was that successful.

Well, it was wonderful reading by Jim Broadbent - one that added to my rating. A slow, careful, pensive reading. Just like Harold - and then Harold does this thing without thinking, totally out of character. And life opens up...I feel like rereading Thoreau's wonderful essay on Walking. Well, I might just do that.

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I received this book through the Library Thing Early reviewer's program and really enjoyed it. It is on the surface a simple story of a man and his walk across most of England (a map would have helped this American reader, but I could have found one easily if I really needed it). The back story is

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gracefully revealed as we journey with Harold and stay at home with his wife. The pilgrimage is revealed to be a love story, but not the one you might expect. It is well written, engaging and a gentle, comfortable read. I recommend it.

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I stayed up until break of dawn this morning to finish this book. It wasn't something I'd anticipated doing. The first half had gone by slowly, overloaded with introspection. The slow pace made sense, since this is a novel about a retired man walking from one end of England to the other because he

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believes it will save an old friend, but there were times in that first section that I had the urge to speak to Harold myself: "It's a good thing you are such a likable guy," I might have said, "because otherwise all this self-reflection would be insanely tedious." And yet, I kept turning pages. I wasn't even sure why, at first -- those little teases of mysterious tragedy intended to generate "compellingness" were largely obvious from the start -- but there was something about this character, Harold Fry, and his wife that made me simply want to know what would happen. So I read.

And as I read, somewhere along the line, the introspection stopped being tedious. The reflections grew into resonant, applicable emotions; the characters transformed into figures both intensely human and genuinely humane. The ideas became important.

Without really realizing it, I was reading like a madwoman, glued to the page in the last stretch of Harold's quest. I cheered him on, in my head. I sighed for him when things started to fall apart. I read the last 25 pages with tears streaming down my cheeks. I thought about Harold's journey as the dawn light filtered into my bedroom, until I fell asleep, and even then I dreamt of walking.

It turned out to be just that sort of book.

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The basics: When Harold Fry, a retired man who lives in southern England, receives a letter from an old co-worker and friend, Queenie, saying goodbye because she is quite ill, he sets out to post his reply letter. Instead of stopping at the mailbox, however, Harold keeps walking so he can say

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goodbye in person. Along the way, he remembers, thinks and meets a quirk cast of characters.

My thoughts: From the first pages of this novel, there is a familiarity to its characters. Harold and his wife, Maureen, seem ordinary and the reader's first glimpse into their lives features the mundanesness of life. Rachel Joyce's observational prose, however, elevates the story. This early passage illustrates the novel itself: "He knew he was going to reach Berwick, and that all he had to do was to place one foot in front of the other. The simplicity of it was joyful. If he kept going forward, he would of course arrive." There is a simplicity to this novel, but there is also a joy to it. While the story itself is straightforward, Harold's interior journey is not.

In spite of its charms, The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry fell flat for me at times. The cast of characters Harold meets along the way became dull. Harold himself is the only constant in this novel, and I never fully warmed to him. His interior monologue featured what felt like a faux innocence about his journey and his life. Many will adore and celebrate Harold, but my inner cynic rolled its eyes at times when this tale became too sweet. What saves this novel from these potential pitfalls is Joyce's writing. As my cynicism became more pronounced, a passage full of wisdom about travel and life would bring me back.

Favorite passage: "Harold thought of all the things in life he’d let go. The small smiles. The offers of a beer. The people he had passed over and over again, in the brewery car park, or on the street, without lifting his head. The neighbours whose forwarding addresses he had never kept. Worse; the son who didn’t speak to him and the wife he had betrayed. He remembered his father in the nursing home, and his mother’s suitcase by the door. And now here was a woman who twenty years ago had proved herself a friend. Was this how it went? That just at the moment when he wanted to do something, it was too late? That all the pieces of a life must eventually be surrendered, as if in truth they amounted to nothing? The knowledge of his helplessness pressed down on him so heavily he felt weak. It wasn’t enough to send a letter. There must be a way to make a difference."

The verdict: While I never fully connected with Harold himself, I did enjoy his journey. At times I felt dismissive of this novel as 'charming' or 'quaint', and while it is both of those things, Joyce's writing elevates this novel. She is a writer to watch.

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Harold Fry is recently retired from working in a brewery. He is bored. He and his wife Maureen have been married for 40 years. To put it mildly, their marriage has grown so stale that it is only the fact that they both give the same address and eat at the same table that corroborates that legal

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status.

Then Harold receives a letter from Queenie Hennessy, with whom he worked at the brewery, but who has not been heard from since she left town 20 years ago. Queenie writes to say that she is dying and is in a hospice in Berwick upon Tweed. She wants simply to say "goodbye."

Harold, pens a proper reply on proper stationery, and leaves the house dressed in dock-siders, shirt, tie, jacket, dress slacks, to walk to the corner to post his letter. When he gets to the post box, he realizes he's missed the last pickup of the day, and decides to walk up the road to the next box. Thus begins the journey of Harold Fry to save Queenie Hennessy. A series of chance encounters early in his walk convince him that he should visit her personally, and that she will not die as long as she is waiting for him to arrive.

He has no cell-phone, no map (and he hasn't the vaguest idea of where Berwick on Tweed is in relation to where he lives in Kingsbridge), no protective clothing, no good walking shoes. He has only an inner compulsion to see Queenie again, to keep walking. When he starts out, he's not sure why. He's not sure where he's going (physically or metaphorically), he's only sure that he must keep going. He does have some spare change, and his debit card with him, so along the way he buys food, and simple sustenance items. He does call his wife after a bit tell her what he's doing and endure her less than encouraging responses.

Harold's journey is a story of the human spirit. He meets people along the way, and is able to learn from all of them. It also becomes Maureen's story, as the author shifts periodically back to Kingsbridge to show us the other side of the marriage, and how it came to the point where it is. Harold's journey is not a straight path: he jigs, jogs, stops, starts, hesitates, falters, but in the end he accomplishes his goal. He gets to Queenie's

The symbolic elements in this book are too numerous to list. The writing is elegant. The characters are spot on. Rachel Joyce has given us a heart-warming, heart-breaking story of life, of dreams (both fulfilled and long-abandoned), of hope and forgiveness. It is a story to be treasured and savored.There's a lot for discussion and I venture it will become a favorite of book clubs across the country.

And by the way, my ARC did not have a map (the empty page indicated it was to be included in the final edition). I googled to find a map of the UK, and kept it open as I followed Harold's journey. Google Maps pegs it at 467 miles if you go on the M5, but Harold's 87 day on-again, off-again trek took him 627 miles. The ending is dramatic, cathartic, and endearing.

This is a book you want to last 87 days, so you can take that walk with Harold and Maureen. It will definitely be on my top of the year list. Don't miss it.

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Harold Fry is an aging, unassuming man who lives in an English village with his wife Maureen. His days slip by with little variation. Then, one day over toast, the mail arrives with a letter from a woman Harold has not heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is writing to tell Harold she is

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dying in a Hospice far away in the town of Berwick upon Tweed. Harold pens a response, and walks to the end of his driveway to mail the letter. But something strange happens. Instead of posting his letter, Harold keeps walking and walking and walking. And thus begins his pilgrimage – a mission to walk nearly 600 miles to Queenie in the belief that as long as he walks, she will live.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a deeply moving story of loss, regret and ultimately forgiveness and redemption. Harold’s walk unleashes memories he has buried for years, and uncovers the cracks in his marriage to Maureen, a woman who has retreated behind a wall of anger and accusation as a way to protect her own fragile emotions.

The novel takes the reader on a journey not only forward to Berwick upon Tweed, but backwards into Harold and Maureen’s past where lives filled with joy, sorrow, misunderstanding, and loneliness are revealed.

As Harold walks, he encounters many people who support and encourage him. His journey is as much about touching the lives of others as it is about understanding himself – in fact, the connection to other ordinary people provides Harold with a deeper sense of his own regrets and a better understanding of the human heart.

The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time. Harold could no longer pass a stranger without acknowledging the truth that everyone was the same, and also unique; and that this was the dilemma of being human. - from the ARE of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry -

Rachel Joyce’s narrative moves between Harold and Maureen and gradually begins to connect the dots in the lives of these ordinary yet extraordinary people. This is not a fast-paced plot, but it is compelling drama which propels the reader through its pages to an emotional conclusion. I found my throat constricting and tears welling in my eyes in the last pages of this beautifully written novel. Joyce captures the fragility of the human spirit and the complexity of marriage and love in the face of loss. She reminds us of the need for connection to others to enrich and bring meaning to our own lives.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is simply outstanding literature. I am glad I took Harold’s journey with him. It is not a straight path from Harold’s tiny village to the northern shore of England – it weaves and hesitates, it falters and slows, it is a struggle…but ultimately Harold’s pilgrimage delivers the reader to a satisfying conclusion. Harold and Maureen, and certainly Queenie, will keep the reader company long after the final page of their story has been turned.

This novel which was recently long listed for the prestigious 2012 Booker Prize, is highly recommended.

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Harold Fry's story is a hero's journey. He starts out not knowing what he's *actually* doing and, in the process, finds himself.

An unexpected letter arrives from Queenie, a woman Harold worked with years before, telling Harold that she's dying and wanted to say goodbye. Harold writes an inadequate

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reply, sets out for the closest mail box, then the next closest, and then finds himself walking across England to see Queenie. He thinks that such a journey may save her, but it winds up saving him in many unexpected ways.

Those are the best journeys--the ones that we start innocently and wind up showing us how very like other people we are. We are reinforced in our humanity if we stay open to others and the unexpected.

The writing is wonderful, the characters are delightful, especially in the degree to which they grow and change. Harold's pilgrimage "saves" many others along the way, helping them find understanding and acceptance. It's warm, insightful, funny and makes you want to keep reading. Wonderful book.

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Not since Tolkien has so much walking been so exhaustively recounted, yet been almost completely tangential to the actual story. (And though there weren't any eagles, there were, like, cars and stuff to explain away.)

Harold is quintessentially British. I completely lost count of the times where he

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did something like walk into a shop and feel compelled to buy something because the worker was staring at him, and he was the reason they weren't able to close yet.

When he finds out an old friend with whom he's lost touch is dying of cancer, he finds that he can't find the words to say. I'd blame this on the Britishness, but I really don't know that any nationality has the proper phrasing for this, with exception of possibly hakuna matata, which is actually Swahili but not the phrasing anyone who speaks Swahili would actually use.

Anyway.

He goes to mail a trite letter, only when he gets to the postbox he decides he's going to walk to her instead. 600-some miles away.

That's probably enough of the plot. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Except it's not really about the journey, either. It's more about Harold's life, and the walk is a penance for all of it. It's purgatory for his wife, who's at home and has held Harold in a subconscious begrudging resentment. And it's a little slice of heaven for the neighbor, Rex, who hasn't had so utility for or interaction with other people in months.

The heartache and emotion that's screwed out of Harold with every step is riveting, if punctuated with several gut-punches. The plotting of the walk itself gets fairly repetitious, as Harold vacillates between rapture and despair with numbing regularity. But peoples' reaction to Harold, his walk and the inevitable nonsense that encircles all of it are eminently believable, especially in the age of social media. And the ending, while not exactly Disney-happy, feels satisfying and earned.

I'm not saying I'd want to read a whole trilogy about the walk (and we're already two-thirds of the way there), but it's worth the effort to amble through.

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I always think there must be a special skill in writing a book which basically depicts a journey. How do you stop it becoming samey, or morphing into a travelogue? There were no worries here, as pensioner Harold sets off walking to the post office and ends up walking almost the length of the

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country, a story that never becomes boring. It became a bit sugary-sweet at certain points in the early stages, with an apparent message that people are all nice if you take the trouble to get to know them, and though I suspect that's true, it felt as though I was being preached at. That feeling didn't last long though. The author kept us guessing as to whether Harold's quest would succeed (I formed my own opinion when I looked back at the width of pages already read and him not yet out of the West Country), and skilfully kept back some secrets about Harold's past which would keep us going to the end. Perhaps what I liked most about it was the calm authorial voice which never gets in the way of the narrative and successfully melds together pathos and humour. The bits with Gorilla-man were the funniest - all the more so for the matter-of-fact way they were reported. And would it be a spoiler if I were to add that this is the only book I have ever read that mentions my husband's home town of Bedworth? A record that I suspect will endure.

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A charming and touching story of a simple man, his personal conviction, hopes; the nature of kindness, friendship and unspoken love. Keep the tissue box handy!

Synopsis:
Harold Fry is convinced that he must deliver a letter to an old friend in order to save her, meeting various characters along the

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way and reminiscing about the events of his past and people he has known, as he tries to find peace and acceptance.

Recently retired, sweet, emotionally numb Harold Fry is jolted out of his passivity by a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, who he hasn't heard from in twenty years. She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie--who is 600 miles away--because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die.

So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories--flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of his shortcomings as a husband.

Ironically, his wife Maureen, shocked by her husband's sudden absence, begins to long for his presence. Is it possible for Harold and Maureen to bridge the distance between them? And will Queenie be alive to see Harold arrive at her door?

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What happens when a man goes out to mail a letter but keeps on going in the belief that time spent walking to his terminally ill long-lost friend and co-worker, Queenie, will keep her alive is an outward journey of compassion and an inward journey of self-reconciliation.

Harold is estranged from

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Maureen, his wife of 40 years, even though they live under the same roof. They hardly speak, they have nothing in common, they sleep in separate rooms. But once Harold resolves that just mailing a card is insufficient response to the death of someone he feels that he wronged long ago and who must have suffered from his sin of omission, and so must be visited in order to receive forgiveness for his trespass, their lives will never be the same.

On his solitary way, Harold meets diverse people, young and old, who impact his life and sometimes provide insight into it. Events transpire that push him into the public spotlight until all England is following the pilgrimage and some rather crippled personalities – and a self-possessed dog – join his train. Harold’s hike reminds us of Christ’s stations of the cross. Harold labors under the burden of his personal sins, the guilt of his inaction, the pain of facing his son’s suicide, and his heartbreak over his withered marriage.

The gentle beauty of the novel is in how Joyce brings Harold closer to Maureen as he walks further away from their home and how in facing the death of Queenie he is able to reconcile himself to his son, David’s, loss years ago and to return to Maureen with hope.

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This is a book about faith and courage. Harold Fry was born unwanted and unloved, and attempted to go through life making as little impact as possible to avoid pain. The one exception was his meeting and loving his wife, Maureen. But the biggest challenge of his life was raising a son, having no

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experience to bring to it and being frightened of the intense love he felt. The story begins as Harold is retired and living with his failures. A letter comes from a previous co-worker, a woman he hadn't heard from in many years. She is in a hospital, dying of cancer and has written to say good-bye. Harold writes to her and walks out to post it. But he is unable to do it and walks to the next box, then the next, until he is miles from home. A chance encounter with a young girl causes a mission to form in his mind. We follow his walking journey, the people he encounters and the effect he has on them and the wife he has left behind. The author is a very good writer and brings the reader along on the journey, describing Harold's awakening senses to the world around him and gradually revealing the surprising details of his life. He is a wonderful character, flawed, weak and full of humanity. I was touched by this story and strongly recommend it.

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I had to come back and change my rating because here it is 2 years later and I still think about this novel. I sometimes find myself yearning to read more about Harold!

Harold Fry sets out one day to post a letter to Queenie Henessey, a woman he used to work with but who he lost touch with twenty years ago. He leaves his wife, Maureen, upstairs doing the Hoovering. Queenie writes that she has terminal cancer and is in a hospice in Berwick-on-Tweed. Instead of

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posting the letter at the first postbox, Harold walks to the next and the next until somehow he is walking to Queenie in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

This is a charming and uplifting book. Harold has to face his own inner demons along the way, regarding his mother, father, marriage, and how he feels he wronged his son. In turn, Maureen also starts to re-examine their life over the last twenty years and it is as though Harold's walking helps them to see clearly through a fog that has been covering them for all that time.

Whilst walking, Harold meets many people, some good and some not so. These people often also have stories to tell, one of which inspires Harold in the first place.

There were a couple of times in the latter half of the book when I despaired the story was about to lose its way, but it didn't. I suppose things happened that didn't fit in with my idea of what should happen, but the author made them work and I soon found that actually they were just right for the plot.

Harold is a gentle, decent man, and written beautifully. His story is ultimately uplifting and one of redemption and hope.

This is a lovely book and I really loved reading it from beginning to end. It's quirky but not too much, and I think most people would enjoy it and get something out of it.

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liked major pettigrew last stand better, didn't finsh