Once in a while, if you’re lucky, you come across a book character that really gets under your skin. Harold Fry, a recently retired former brewery worker living in provincial England, is one of those characters. As the title of Rachel Joyce’s first novel suggests, this is the story of Harold’s unlikely pilgrimage – and an amazing journey of late-in-life self-discovery.
Harold walks out the door one day to post a letter to his dying friend, Queenie Hennesy – and doesn’t stop walking for 87 days. He is unprepared for a hike, wearing just a shirt, tie, pants and boat shoes, without a compass, map or even a cellphone.
In a moment of impulse, Harold finds himself on an unexpected voyage, travelling the length of the country by foot in the hope of reaching Queenie in time to save her life. Queenie, we know, is lying in a hospice bed, her body ravaged with cancer – nothing short of a miracle can save her.
However, Harold’s pilgrimage soon becomes less of a mission to save his friend’s life and more one to save his own. The path to Queenie’s bedside puts Harold on a coarse with a diverse group of strangers. His encounters with these people – including a lonely Slovakian doctor, an emotionally damaged young man and a petrol station attendee – all shed light on the tragic events that have helped form Harold’s life and led him back to Queenie.
With his estranged wife Maureen left at home to ruminate over a few selfdiscoveries of her own, Harold’s journey touches every person he comes across – and is sure to have the same effect on readers. Funny, tender and with a heart-stopping twist to boot, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry could be the best book you pick up this year.
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