Book: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: 2012
Pages: 320
Source: Library
Walk the length of England with Harold Fry
Summary: One day, Harold Fry, a recently retired accounts manager, walks to the mailbox to deliver a letter to a dying friend. But, that doesn’t feel quite right. So, Harold keeps walking to the next mailbox, then to the post office, and, then, the length of England. Along the way, he encounters people who help and hinder, support and scoff. In between encounters, he has lots of time to think and remember his life as a family man, a worker, and a friend of Queenie Hennessy, the woman who is dying.
Thoughts: I loved walking through England with Harold Fry! The perfect book to read just before a visit there. Thanks to Judith of Leeswammes’ Blog who recommended it when I mentioned that I would be taking Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson with me to England.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is simple on the surface, but hints at more and more as the walk continues. Just as you think this might get boring, as moments on a long walk do, a question surfaces that keeps the reader marching along with the character. All is revealed in the end and, like the walk itself, it’s a surprising path that we take.
Appeal: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is gentle, but with unexpected depths. It will appeal to a reader looking for a book that is charming but not too sweet — an apple bread pudding of a book rather than a cinnamon roll.
I’ll link this review in the British Isles Friday link party tomorrow.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
