The Unlikely Pilgrimmage of Harold Fry

by Rachel Joyce
This was such a nice refreshing book to read after the last one I started (the Jade Cat). I haven't finished the Jade Cat, it is so dark and depressing.... and hopeless).

This book is about hope, faith, forgiveness, caring and redemption.  It is the story of a man who recently retired from a sales job at a distillery.  He receives a letter from a woman he worked with at the distillery years before.  She tells him she is dying of cancer but has been thinking of him. 

He doesn't know how to respond to the letter but decides to write a short reply and sets of to the mailbox to post it.  However, when he gets to the mailbox he keeps walking, and then he gets to the next one and keeps on walking.  He gets to a service station where he tells a young girl about the letter and his sadness and she tells him that her aunt survived cancer because she (the girl) had faith that she could beat it. 

Harold decides that if he walks all the way from his home in south England to the hopsice in the North of England that he will be able to save Queenie.  He sets off, phoning his wife, to tell her his plan.  She of course thinks he is crazy but they h
tave not been getting on well for years.

As Harold walks he thinks about his life, his marriage, his relationship with Queenie, and the fact that she took the blame for something he did and lost her job as a result.  Harold's wife doesn't really like him but she is jealous of Queenie and worried that her husband will leave her for Queenie.

As Harold walks he meets many people. tells them his story and also listens to theirs.  Along the way many people are very kind and helpful but eventually he develops a crowd of groupies who disturb his peace of mind, his determination and his progress.  Evenutally they part ways but by this time he has become a media celebrity, much to his chagrin,

As Harold walks, both he and his wife review their lives and their behaviour and rediscover their love for each other.  Harold does make it to see Queenie, she has been staying alive awaiting his arrival, he is shocked at her condition and that he cannot save her despite his physical sacrifice.  However, at the end he is at peace as is she.

So many books this day are about anger and blame and the inability to forgive or accept responsibility.  This was a lovely redemptive story.