Hardback: 127 pages
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Doubleday 2022
Source: Tywyn Public Library
First Sentences: It was too early for birdsong. Harold lay beside her, his hands neat on his chest, looking so peaceful she wondered where he travelled in his sleep.
Series: Book 3 in Harold Fry Trilogy.
Setting: England
Favourite Quote: These days it was all safe motorways and Uber. It was paying with your phone, and-lease keep your distance, not to mention podcasts, milk made of oats and meat made of plants, and everything streamed online.
Review Quote: A beautiful novella ... with compassion and tenderness ... the novel's conclusion is deeply moving and life-affirming. -- Hannah Beckerman ― Observer Published On: 2022-10-09
My Opinion: A slim volume, but nevertheless this is a forceful and moving finale to Rachel Joyce’s trilogy featuring Harold and Maureen Fry. It is not absolutely necessary to have read the earlier two, but it may well add to your enjoyment and understanding of this concluding volume if you have done so.
Maureen Fry is the protagonist this time and it is her turn to take an emotional journey. Maureen’s grief caused by the death of her son many years previously is still festering away inside her. Deciding to lay her ghosts to rest she embarks on her own journey. She is nothing like her husband in character, therefore the trip is a real challenge for her, she certainly has to face her demons along the way.
This touching narrative of personal grief is told with humour, which will have you laughing but will also bring tears to your eyes. Well worth reading.
Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:
Ten years ago, Harold Fry set off on his epic journey on foot to save a friend. But the story doesn't end there. Now his wife, Maureen, has her own pilgrimage to make.
Maureen Fry has settled into the quiet life she now shares with her husband Harold after his iconic walk across England. Now, ten years later, an unexpected message from the North disturbs her equilibrium again, and this time it is Maureen's turn to make her own journey.
But Maureen is not like Harold. She struggles to bond with strangers, and the landscape she crosses has changed radically. She has little sense of what she'll find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she must get there.
Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North is a deeply felt, lyrical and powerful novel, full of warmth and kindness, about love, loss, and how we come to terms with the past in order to understand ourselves and our lives a little better. Short, exquisite, while it stands in its own right, it is also the moving finale to a trilogy that began with the phenomenal bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and continued with The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.
This is a slender book but it has all the power and weight of a classic.
Author Profile:
Courtesy of Goodreads
Rachel Joyce was born in London in 1962. She has written over 20 original afternoon plays for BBC Radio 4, and major adaptations for both the Classic Series, Woman's Hour and also a TV drama adaptation for BBC 2. In 2007 she won the Tinniswood Award for best radio play. She moved to writing after a twenty-year career in theatre and television, performing leading roles for the RSC, the Royal National Theatre, The Royal Court, and Cheek by Jowl, winning a Time Out Best Actress award and the Sony Silver.
For a full profile visit her Website
Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:
Goodreads Profile Rachel Joyce - Official Website Instagram Profile
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