The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

What a sweet, lovely, uplifting novel! Playwright Rachel Joyce gives us Harold Fry, a retired salesman in a small town in England whose life is just the same day over and over. He and his wife, Maureen, barely speak, and in fact Harold rarely leaves the house - or even his chair it seems. Then one day a letter arrives - his old friend Queenie Hennessey, whom he hasn't seen in 20 years, is dying of cancer. So Harold decides to write Queenie a note.

But then something happens to Harold. Walking from the house to the post box, he keeps going, and he even goes past the post office... he just keeps walking. At some point he decides he is going to walk across England to see Queenie in person, and he adds a line to the note asking her to wait. He doesn't have the right shoes or equipment, in fact he hasn't walked further than the driveway in years, but he's walking across England for someone he hasn't seen in 20 years.

Along the way Harold meets some interesting people, but he also meets the man he used to be, as well as the man he would like to be. And he comes to terms with the parts of his life that have made him who he is, and shaped the relationship he has shared with Maureen for much of their married life.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry