BY RHONDA NIVEN

 

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry presents an answer to that question we’ve all asked ourselves at sometime (I hope), of "What would happen if I didn’t go home?"

Retired brewery salesman Harold Fry receives a letter from a former colleague of nearly 20 years ago, Queenie Hennessy, to say she is terminally ill in a hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Having written his reply, Harold sets out to post it, passing first one post box, and then another.

A chance conversation with a young girl working in a garage leads him to believe that Queenie will survive if only he walks from his home in South Devon to deliver his letter in person, and so begins his unlikely pilgrimage.

As he walks, Harold looks back at his life from his sad and lonely childhood where his mother walked out on his family, to his equally sad and lonely married life where he and wife Maureen have become increasingly estranged under the same roof and his difficult relationship with troubled son David.

Covering roughly eight miles a day, it seems as though the book will be a long one, but somewhere near Coventry, Harold’s pilgrimage becomes first local then national news, eventually developing cult-like status as he is joined by an eccentric collection of fellow travellers. Phone calls to Maureen along the way reveal she is at first scathing and perplexed by Harold’s journey as she envisages their retirement money being spent on B&B’s along the length of the country. But as the nation begins to support and believe in Harold, Maureen finds herself doing the same too for the first time in years.

This is Rachel Joyce’s fist novel. It was long-listed for the 2012 Man Booker prize, and won her the UK National Book Award for New Writer of the Year in 2012. It’s a heart-warming story of how we can all get out of the ruts we have let ourselves fall into throughout life, no matter how deep they seem.

Tissues at the ready. We have all asked that question, haven’t we?

 

This book was published by Black Swan and is available to buy for £7.99. It can also be borrowed from The Hive as well as other Worcestershire libraries. Click here to check availability and check it out.