The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry …a review

I picked this book up from a Charity shop. The reason was that I had been seeing it around, in shop windows, in people’s hands etc. So, in want of a light read, I picked it up. It is about a man who randomly decides to walk from the south of England to Berwick in Scotland when he gets a letter from his old colleague saying that she had cancer. He has no boots, no rain gear, no compass, no phone, no map. He has a pensioner’s fund and a credit/debit card though. It is a pilgrim story set in modern day context.

He wore these ‘yatching’ shoes

I liked it. Firstly, it was a very breezy read. Very easy to put down whenever and pick it up without having the feeling of having lost a beat. Rachael Joyce’s style of writing is simple, the narrative, though at times predictable, is still finely tuned, seeing as it is her first novel. Secondly, the book has some very nice subplots, again some are predictable, but I liked how they slowly came to light at various points of the journey, and how the walk was a common background. Lastly, I liked the reality check at the end, where the reader realises that there is faith and hope, and then there is life.

It is a good book, a steady interesting read, and has been a good four – five days.