Essentially this book is about one man and his journey, by foot, from Kingsbridge in Devon all the way up the length of England to Berwick-upon-Tweed. But really this book is about more than just a walk. It's about relationships; it's about life and death; it's about how someone can think themselves as ordinary when in fact to others they are someone special.
The book starts with Harold Fry, retired, receiving a letter from an old work colleague, Queenie Hennessey, who he has not seen or heard from for 20-years. She informs him she is dying of terminal cancer. Harold writes a response and goes out to post it, but he doesn't just do that - he starts a pilgrimage. After meeting a girl in a nearby garage he is inspired to walk the length of England to keep his friend alive.
I have to say that for me the first part of the book was the worst. The conversations seemed unrealistic. The garage girl's inspirational speech didn't, to me, seem that inspirational. The characters Harold met seemed weird. But then at this point he is still umm-ing and arr-ing about whether a walk was the right thing to do anyway so maybe the two are related. Eventually he fully commits and the story picks up. We learn that ordinary Harold Fry touches so many people along the way with plenty of tear-jerking moments. We learn why he is estranged from his son. We learn about Harold Fry's life as he reflects upon it during his walking time. What he is doing is special and the person he is doing it for is special too for what she did for him all those years ago when they were colleagues. The lesson from the book is that we are all special to the people we interact with, no matter how ordinary we may appear.
Overall this is a read that took a little while to get going but turned into a belter of a book by the end.
(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)
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