The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
In the first of my reviews of books nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2012, here is: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a simple story. One morning, Harold Fry receives a letter. It is from a woman he has not seen for twenty years, who is dying of cancer. He writes a response, and walking to the post box to deliver his few lines of sympathy, keeps on walking. He will keep on walking until he has walked the 627 miles to Queenie Hennessy’s bed. The novel is what transpires during those 627 miles – the emotional truths Harold realises about himself, his marriage and the life of his son. But it is also about the lives of those he encounters on his way – an immigrant nurse, a man with a shoe fetish, the hangers-on, the troubled men, and a stray dog. The Unlikely Pilgrimage becomes a travelling show. While, all the way back at his starting point, his wife is realising how much she misses her husband when he is gone...