THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY.

THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY by RACHEL JOYCE.

SOURCE: Bought in aid of the Air Ambulance..

When Harold Fry leaves home one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other.

He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life.
...... Outer back cover

FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1: Harold and the Letter}: The letter that would change everything arrived on a Tuesday.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 106}: He was a chap like himself, with a unique pain, and yet there would be no knowing that if you passed him in the street, or sat opposite him in a cafe and did not share his teacake.

MY THOUGHTS: The story of what happens the day retired Harold Fry receives a letter and intending to post it at the local post box instead finds himself walking some 627 miles over 87 days.

I had been wanting to read this for a while but kept putting off buying a copy as I was worried that having read so many rave reviews I'd be left feeling disappointed that it wasn't as great a read as I thought it would be.

Thankfully, everything (and more) I'd hoped it would be, The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry is one of those rare books that captured my imagination, heart and soul from page one.

Intrigued by the relationship between Harold and his wife Maureen, I had expected to find myself taking sides but such was the poignancy of each of their stories that I found myself having equal empathy with both of them. And as for the relationship between Harold and Queenie? I don't want to give anything away but suffice to say I found this both exceptionally tender whilst oddly moving.

Wonderfully written. Its not just the main characters that are so riveting. Whether their involvement with Harold be long or short as much thought is given to each of the secondary characters stories. And despite the fact that not everything is revealed until almost the very end of the novel the author does a great job in seeing that  the readers interest in just what makes Harold and Maureen the people they are never wavers.

Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper. All original content on http://pettywitter.blogspot.co.uk/ is created by the website owner, including but not limited to text, design, code, images, photographs and videos are considered to be the Intellectual Property of the website owner, whether copyrighted or not, and are protected by DMCA Protection Services using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Title 17 Chapter 512 (c)(3). Reproduction or re-publication of this content is prohibited without permission. In addition I would also urge that if you are reading this on any other page you contact the original blog owner/reviewer.