52 Books 52 Weeks / Week Ending March 18, 2013

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Recently retired Harold Fry receives a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old co-worker and friend, who he hasn't heard from in twenty years. She has cancer and is writing to say goodbye. Something caused her to disappear twenty years earlier, and Harold finds it difficult to answer her letter.  He writes an inadequate reply, and begins walking to the corner mailbox, but he finds himself walking on, and on, and inspired by a young woman along the way, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie--who is more than 600 miles away--because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die.  

Harold has no proper gear, no cell phone, no maps (and a terrible sense of direction) as he starts his unlikely pilgrimage.  Along the way, memories from the past are stirred up about his marriage and his failing relationship with his wife Maureen, his shortcomings as a father and disappointment in his son, and longings to do this one positive thing for an old friend who he disappointed all those years ago.  Harold meets strangers who inspire him and strangers who disappoint him, and learns that it's never to late for second chances.