The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel

If you have not read this novel, I urge you to do so. It's one of the best novel I have read this year. It is one of these rich novels that you can read over and over and still discover new meaning. I read it with [immersion reading] and the audio narration is one of the best I've heard this year. Jim Broadbent narration is excellent. His voice performance of Harold and the other characters is just perfect. I could not have imagined a better voice.Author Rachel Joyce wrote this novel at a time where her father was battling cancer. Her father was her main inspiration for this novel. This fictional novel is so real because it engages real life situations and feelings celebrating the beauty of ordinary life. The main character, Harold Fry, receives a letter from a long time coworker, Queenie, who is battling cancer. Harold decides to write her a letter but on his way to mail it he just realizes mailing a letter is not enough and he starts to walk. That's how Harold's sudden journey commence with no ulterior planning. He decides to walk all the way to "Berwick-upon-Tweed" which is, in average, a 500 miles distance.Walking became the new terrain Harold was going to engage life: where he came from, who he was, his mistakes, fears. He started an examination of conscious that would purified him and make him anew. It would clear all the cobwebs of his marital life and heal his wounds. The nakedness of his soul is revealed and armored. It would become an opportunity to start over in life, freeing himself from anything that tied him down. He would be enriched by many encounters, strangers that would help him and encourage him. Queenie's letter will be the constant compass along the story. Harold will read it many times when he rests and every time a veil would be uplifted. The same words have a different dimension, meaning, a different reality.The surrounding descriptions were just transforming and inspiring, full of hope reminding me at times of "La Terre des Hommes" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Through Harold's journey we will be reminded of life's fragility and universality. How we play a small part in this world that has a life of its own.This is a story about friendship, the struggles of life but also the beauty of life in the mist of all. This novel will make you want to walk. It was impossible for me to seat and read this novel. Many times I had these urges to walk and I did. I was engrossed all along. Not once did I felt bored. I laughed, Martina was one of my favorite characters. I also cried but this is one of a kind. So worth the read. It was heart-wrenching but so profound and uplifting at the same time. The surroundings would offer the strength to accept these truths. The ending was majestically beautiful. Harold is with his wife, Maureen, in front of the sea. Reminding us how life is like a sea with its wrenching, sudden storms yet enigmatic. The element of unpredictability of Harold's journey is what gave beauty to this story.

This sweet, heartfelt book reminded me of movies like Waking Ned Devine or The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. It even had some Forrest Gump-ian characteristics (without the Southern accent or the meteoric run through historical events). But despite some similarities, this was a unique book with a story all its own.Harold Fry recently retired from his job, and now doesn't feel motivated to do much of anything. His very presence seems to irritate his wife, Maureen. But then again, their relationship has been strained for some time, full of hurt and anger both spoken and unspoken, especially since their son, David, left home.One day, Harold receives a letter from an unlikely source--Queenie Hennessy, a former coworker he hasn't seen or heard from in 20 years. Queenie wrote to tell Harold that she is in hospice suffering from terminal cancer, and wanted to say goodbye. Harold is shocked by this news and touched by the memories Queenie's letter stirred up, so he quickly dashes off a note of support, and heads to the corner mailbox. Yet as he arrives at the mailbox, he realizes it is a nice day outside, and decides to keep walking to the next one.On his journey to the post office, from where he figures sending the letter will allow it to arrive quicker, Harold has a chance encounter that changes everything. And then he decides he must keep walking, all the way to visit Queenie in person to help save her--despite the fact it is a 600-mile journey from his home in Kingsbridge to the hospice in Berwick-on-Tweed. Not to mention he hasn't had much physical exercise in many years, and isn't all dressed for that type of journey.But walk he does, much to his surprise, and Maureen's shock, anger, and chagrin. Harold's walk opens his mind to memories both good and painful, as he relives his friendship with Queenie and tries to figure out exactly where his and Maureen's relationship went wrong. "Life was very different when you walked through it," he said, and along his walk he comes into contact with many different people and realizes that each has an interesting story to tell."The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time." Harold's journey takes many interesting twists and turns, and people's reactions to it become almost indicative of the world we live in today. And during Harold's absence, Maureen tries to figure out the root of her anger with Harold, and whether her life is worth living without him.This is a compelling, enjoyable, and warm story about the unlikely journeys we take, sometimes simply to prove we still have life inside of us. It's also a story about the things we say and don't say to those we care about, and the ramifications of both. I liked this book quite a bit, although I could have done without the events around the public's embracing of Harold's pilgrimage, as I felt it took the book into more satirical territory than the story needed. Beyond that, however, this book had charm, the special charm you feel after a whimsical movie like the ones I mentioned above.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold FryRachel JoyceA most unusual story.Harold is an honest man, now in his 60s, not very educated. He is one of those people who are unable to demonstrate their emotions. He has had troubled relationships with his parents, his only son, his wife; he has no friends. The one colleague with whom he had developed a warm relationship (a lady named Queenie) abruptly left her job and now, after two decades, sends him a letter from her death-bed in a hospice in the extreme north of England while he lives with his wife at the other end of the country. He drafts a reply, a true- to- form cryptic letter which he goes out to post at the nearby post-box.Thoughts, basically a sense of guilt because of what he had apparently omitted to do before Queenie left, begin to assail him as he walks to the post box and he therefore decides to walk to the next post-box while he sorts out his thoughts. And gradually Harold does something totally untrue to form- he takes a spontaneous decision. And the decision is: he will not post the meaningless letter; he will go meet Queenie. He is convinced that if she knows he is coming, she will wait. She will not die - at least till he gets there. And for some obscure reason he decides to walk all the way.Hie marathon 87-day, 627-mile long walk becomes a kind of “retreat” as he remembers and reviews some of the major milestones of his life, acknowledges his failings and comes to terms with them, and recalls the failings of others and learns to forgive them. He meets all kinds of strangers as he walks, talks to them freely and listens to them patiently.For him, this is a new experience. This talking to strangers. And he realises a liberating truth: that he is not alone; everyone carries his own cross. As the book says, “People were buying milk, or filling their cars with petrol, or even posting letters. And what no one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The superhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and every-day. The loneliness of that. (Harold is) moved and humbled….”Harold reaches breaking point- both physically and mentally- a few times during these 3 months. But, “he wouldn’t stop, though his body cried out for rest. He was angry with himself for being so frail.”In the meanwhile, his wife Maureen also undergoes a similar experience, sitting at home. Harold stays in touch with her through picture post-cards and telephone calls. She also reviews her past and realises how she had been unfair and unreasonable with her husband and she even rushes to join him (by now Harold has become a sort of celebrity as the press gets to know of his determined walk to “save” Queenie, and a whole procession is walking with him). But upon meeting him she feels somehow inadequate. She thinks, “Harold surely couldn’t have grown taller or broader, but looking at this weather-beaten pirate of a man, with his skin like dark leather and his curling hair, she felt she had become both one-dimensional and more fragile. It was the pared-down vitality of him that made her tremble…”. Maureen therefore decides to go back home and wait for his return.The lingering question throughout the story is: why was Harold walking? A waitress he met at the beginning of his walk had told him how her faith had saved her aunt from dying of cancer even after her doctors had given up. So, was he walking to save Queenie? But Harold didn’t believe in God or miracles. As the book says, “no one knew the real truth about why he was walking to Queenie. They had made assumptions. They thought it was a love story, or a miracle, or an act of beauty, or even bravery, but it was none of those things. The discrepancy between what he knew and what other people believed frightened him.”He almost gave up his walk, defeated in body and spirit. But he remembered the waitress and decided to walk on.It's a slow-moving but very moving story.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a quite delightful book and certainly deserves all the praise it’s received.It took me somewhat by surprise as it starts out as what seems a light hearted whimsical fable but, step by step, develops into something much more profound.It’s a wonderful story that, personally, I found rather confronting at times as Harold finds a determination to face a troubling situation and as he does he comes to understand past events that have shaped his life.It’s a transformational pilgrimage with a lot to offer readers.

I’m rarely moved to tears by a book, I guess mostly due to the kind of books I’m used to reading but this one has definitely shaken me up.Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a true page turner and has really changed my vision of life. A tad twee at times but mostly eye-opening, showing how important it is never to give up.Harold is a character who has a very shattered past and who is doing his best to become a better man. Driven by a simple letter from someone he had long forgotten about, his journey through England takes us to many towns and cities through a myriad of plants and flowers that the character himself keeps learning about. He evolves through the book as an emotionally-complexed retiree who is walking because he has decided it was a way to save his friend. However, this walk is not really about his friend but more about him and how every single decision he makes changes him for good. I strongly recommend this book which I think has the power to put things into perspective.

Um livro q trata da solidão essencial do ser humano, lindamente narrado por um homem q repensa sua vida após receber uma carta inusitadoa. Recomendo.

Wusstet ihr, dass „The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry“ ursprünglich ein Radio Hörspiel war? Rachel Joyce hat es für BBC Radio 4 geschrieben, in Gedenken an ihren Vater, der an Krebs litt und leider nicht lange genug lebte, um es zu hören. Später dann schrieb sie es zu einem vollwertigen Roman um. Dafür bin ich ihr sehr dankbar, denn hätte sie das nicht getan, wäre ich wohl nie in den Genuss dieser wundervollen Geschichte gekommen.Harold Fry ist seit sechs Monaten pensioniert, aber maßgeblich verändert hat sich sein Leben dadurch nicht. Jeder Tag gleicht dem anderen und meist ist er seiner Ehefrau Maureen im Weg. Doch eines Morgens reißt ihn das Eintreffen eines Briefes aus seinem Trott. Es ist eine Nachricht einer alten Freundin. 20 Jahre lang hat Harold Queenie Hennessy weder gesprochen noch gesehen. Nun liegt sie im Sterben. Wie soll er nur darauf antworten, nach allem, was Queenie für ihn getan hat und nach all den Jahren? Als er seine ersten Schritte in Richtung Briefkasten macht, um sein Antwortschreiben einzuwerfen, ist das der Beginn einer fantastischen Reise. Denn während Harold läuft, kommt ihm die Idee, dass er genau das für Queenie tun kann: laufen. Über 600 Meilen, von Kingsbridge im Süden Englands bis nach Berwick-upon-Tweed ganz im Norden, wo Queenie in einem Hospiz ihre letzten Tage verbringt. Harold ist fest überzeugt, solange er läuft, wird Queenie leben. Sie wird auf ihn warten. Erst während seiner Reise merkt Harold, dass diese ihm weit mehr abverlangt, als nur einen Fuß vor den anderen zu setzen: sie konfrontiert ihn mit Erinnerungen. Und nicht nur mit Erinnerungen an Queenie.Fragte man mich, wovon „The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry“ handelt, wüsste ich keine andere Antwort als „Vom Leben“. Verpasste Chancen, genutzte Gelegenheiten, enttäuschte Erwartungen, Liebe und Freundschaft, Schmerz, Verlust, Leidenschaft, Unausgesprochenes – um all das geht es in diesem Roman. Ich wage zu behaupten, dass sich einfach jeder in Harolds Geschichte wiederfinden kann, weil sie in ihrer Gewöhnlichkeit absolut außergewöhnlich ist. Es sind die kleinen Dinge, die ein Leben besonders machen; das Wesentliche liegt nicht an der Oberfläche, sondern steht zwischen den Zeilen. Rachel Joyce hat genau diese Eigenheit des Daseins mit erstaunlicher Klarheit herausgearbeitet und in den Mittelpunkt ihrer Erzählung gestellt. Ihre Art zu schreiben ist dabei unmissverständlich und direkt, sodass ich keine Probleme hatte, eine Verbindung zu Harold und auch seiner Frau Maureen aufzubauen, obwohl uns etwa 40 Lebensjahre trennen. Harolds Reise entfacht das Leben und die Liebe in ihnen beiden aufs Neue; Gefühle, die jahrzehntelang geschlafen haben, werden wiedererweckt. Während er läuft, verschwimmen für Harold die Grenzen von Realität und Erinnerung. Während er läuft, überwindet Maureen uralten Groll und Schmerz. Je mehr geografische Distanz zwischen ihnen liegt, desto näher kommen sie sich emotional. Joyce ließ mich hautnah an dieser Entwicklung teilhaben; es war so wunderschön, sie zu beobachten. So etwas warmherziges, sanftes, zärtliches und intimes habe ich schon lange nicht mehr gelesen. Es hat mir ein Lächeln ins Gesicht gezaubert, auf jeder einzelnen Seite. Ein bisschen erinnerte es mich an „Schiffbruch mit Tiger“. Vermutlich hätten Harold und Maureen es jedoch nie geschafft, die Gräben zwischen sich zu überwinden, wäre Queenie nicht gewesen. Queenie Hennessy hat schon einmal sehr viel für Harold getan und jetzt tut sie es erneut. Noch mit ihrem letzten Atemzug macht sie ihm ein unschätzbares Geschenk. Sie bringt die Liebe zwischen Harold und Maureen erneut zum Glühen und lässt sie verstehen, dass manche Momente des Lebens einfach zu groß und zu schmerzhaft sind, um sie allein zu verarbeiten. Ist das nicht schlicht bezaubernd?Ich bin noch nicht 60, aber auch ich habe Teile meines Ichs in „The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry“ entdeckt. Eine Botschaft nehme ich ganz sicher daraus mit und hoffe, ich habe sie nicht vergessen, wenn ich so alt bin wie Harold. Es ist niemals zu spät, um etwas zu tun, zu sagen oder zu verändern. Es ist oft nicht das Alter, das uns aufhält, es sind unsere negativen Erfahrungen. Niemals möchte ich den Mut verlieren, einfach zu springen und etwas Verrücktes zu tun, mein Leben noch einmal völlig umkrempeln, wenn es sein muss – ganz wie Harold.Ich empfehle dieses Buch an LeserInnen, die in der Lage sind, das Besondere im Gewöhnlichen zu erkennen. In jedem Leben steckt ein wenig Magie. Manchmal muss man nur genauer hinsehen, um sie zu finden.