Six Hundred Miles of Hope in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Over the years Harold and his wife, Maureen, have grown apart almost to the point of forgetting when they met and fell in love. Now in Harold’s retirement, their lives have taken on a mundane routine of two people living together but emotionally apart when suddenly Harold receives a letter from Queenie who is dying in a hospice over six hundred miles away. Breaking with common sense and in a spur of the moment decision Harold takes off and decides to walk the hundreds of miles to see Queenie before she dies because he has come to believe that as long as he walks Queenie will live.His wife is beside herself and has no idea who Queenie is or why Harold is determined to see her again. In The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, Harold’s journey goes beyond the physical endurance of such a long trek but instead reaches into the past of husband and wife. Can Harold complete his pilgrimage and make it before Queenie dies and at the same time rekindle his relationship with Maureen? This is thoughtful, gentle novel where the journey is as important as the destination.
