Rachel Joyce

A novel of unsentimental charm, humor, and profound insight into the thoughts and feelings we all bury deep within our hearts, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry introduces Rachel Joyce as a wise - and utterly irresistible - storyteller. 

Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn't seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye. 

Harold pens a quick reply and, leaving Maureen to her chores, heads to the corner mailbox. But then, as happens in the very best works of fiction, Harold has a chance encounter, one that convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. And thus begins the unlikely pilgrimage at the heart of Rachel Joyce's remarkable debut. Harold Fry is determined to walk six hundred miles from Kingsbridge to the hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed because, he believes, as long as he walks, Queenie Hennessey will live. 

Still in his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold embarks on his urgent quest across the countryside. Along the way he meets one fascinating character after another, each of whom unlocks his long-dormant spirit and sense of promise. Memories of his first dance with Maureen, his wedding day, his joy in fatherhood, come rushing back to him - allowing him to also reconcile the losses and the regrets. As for Maureen, she finds herself missing Harold for the first time in years. 

And then there is the unfinished business with Queenie Hennessy.
(jacket flap)

a novel

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

From the author of the world-wide bestseller, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - 'A beautiful novel, a tonic for the soul and a complete joy to read.' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. 1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk – as long as it’s vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need. Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann. Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ... 'Hits all the right notes...a love story that’s as much about the silences between words as what is said – the spaces between people that can be filled with mystery, confusion and misunderstanding as well as hope." Observer RACHEL JOYCE'S NEW NOVEL, MISS BENSON'S BEETLE, IS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW

From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The Music Shop

"It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson--a sensible schoolmarm and lonely spinster--is just trying to get through life. But one day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and her tidy, circumscribed life, to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of an insect that may or may not exist: the golden beetle of New Caledonia, Margery's childhood obsession ever since her father gave her a book on cryptozoology right before he killed himself. The assistant Margery hires to accompany her, Enid Pretty, in her pink hat and pompom sandals, is not the companion she had in mind. But together they will find themselves drawn into an adventure that exceeds all expectations: a cross-ocean voyage to a remote island covered with dense jungle--the last place two proper British ladies would expect to find themselves. They must risk everything and break all the rules, but at the top of a mountain deep in the South Pacific they will discover their best selves. This is a charming, uplifting story about the power of belief in all its forms; it is an intoxicating adventure that explores what it means to be a woman; and it is a tender exploration of the transformative power of friendship"--

Miss Benson's Beetle

In 1972, two seconds were added to time. It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knows this because James Lowe has told him and James is the cleverest boy at school. But how can time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock is as certain as their golden futures. Then Byron's mother, late for the school run, makes a devastating mistake. Byron's perfect world is shattered. Were those two extra seconds to blame? Can what follows ever be set right?

Perfect

When Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait? A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, 'Even though you've done your travelling, you're starting a new journey too.' Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story. She was wrong. It was the beginning.

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy

Das Ehepaar Harold und Maureen Fry lebt nur noch nebeneinander her, bis Harold spontan zu Fuss zu einer krebskranken Freundin aufbricht, die 600 Kilometer entfernt im Sterben liegt. Diese Pilgerreise mit vielen Begegnungen und Erinnerungen verändert das Paar.

Roman

Die unwahrscheinliche Pilgerreise des Harold Fry

Family is everything, even when it falls apart.

After the sudden death of a renowned artist, his four adult children travel to Italy to sort out his affairs with his much-younger wife, in this moving novel from the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

World-famous artist Vic Kemp has relied on his four children ever since their mother died when they were young. Netta, the oldest, is a litigator who often serves as co-parent to her siblings; Susan, a housewife who cooks and cleans for both her husband and her father; Goose's own thwarted artistic ambitions have left him resigned to a job in Vic's studio; and Iris, the baby, drops everything the moment her father calls. 

When Vic summons the siblings with the promise of big news, they hope their father is about to tell them he has finished the mysterious masterpiece he claims will be the capstone to his career. Instead, he announces he’s getting remarried. Bella-Mae, his wife to be, is apparently beautiful, a fellow artist—and twenty-seven to his seventy-six years. When his children dare to express concern, Vic decamps with Bella-Mae to his summer home in Italy. Six weeks later, he is found dead. There is no sign of his will, or his promised final painting. 

Netta, Susan, Goose, and Iris gather at the house on Lake Orta to piece together what happened and prepare to bring their father’s body home. They spend the summer in a waiting game, living under the same roof as Bella-Mae, and forced to confront Vic's legacy and the buried wounds they have incurred as his children. So who is Bella-Mae? Is she the woman their father believed her to be? Or is she the force that will destroy the family for good? How long can their old bonds hold? 

With sparkling wit, compassion and tender insight, The Homemade God explores memory, identity, grief, healing, and the bonds of siblinghood—what happens when they splinter, and what it might take to find a new way forward.

The Homemade God

Seven stories to span the Christmas holidays: A Faraway Smell of Lemon: The School Term has ended. It is almost Christmas but Binny, out last-minute shopping couldn't feel less like wishing glad tidings to all men. Ducking out of the rain she finds herself in the sort of shop she would never normally visit. The Marriage Manual: Christmas Eve. Two parents endeavour to construct their son's Christmas present from a DIY kit and in the process find themselves deconstructing their marriage. Christmas at the Airport: A glitch in the system, travellers stranded and all sorts of lives colliding in the face of a sudden birth... The Boxing Day Ball: Maureen has never been out with the local girls before. Who knew that a disco in the Village Hall could be life-changing? A Snow Garden: Two little boys, dumped with their divorced father for his share of the Christmas holidays and none of them with a clue how to enjoy it. I'll Be Home for Christmas The most famous boy in the world comes home hoping to escape the madness with a normal family Christmas. Trees: As if Christmas wasn't wearing enough, now his elderly parent is asking for a hole in the ground ... Father and son break old habits and plant a tree to mark the start of the new year. Six stories as funny, joyous, poignant and memorable as Christmas should be.

A Snow Garden and Other Stories

Mister Franks fabelhaftes Talent für Harmonie : Roman

From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes a moving novel told from the point of view of Harold’s wife Maureen. Now undertaking her own journey, Maureen will discover a way to reconnect with the world she’s closed a door on. Maureen Fry has settled into the quiet life she shares with her husband after his iconic walk across England ten years ago. When an unexpected message from the North disturbs her equilibrium again, it is now her turn to make a journey. But Maureen is not like Harold. By turns outspoken, then vulnerable, she struggles to form bonds with the people she meets, and the landscape she crosses has radically changed. And Maureen has no sense of what she will find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she has to get there. Maureen 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. While it stands alone, it is also the extraordinarily moving finale to a trilogy that began with the phenomenal bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and continued in The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. What was started by Harold, only Maureen can complete.

A Harold Fry Novel

Maureen

Das Jahr, das zwei Sekunden brauchte : Roman

Zwei unvergessliche Frauen auf der Reise ihres Lebens »Es passiert so leicht, dass man sein Leben mit Dingen verbringt, für die man kein bisschen brennt. Aber jetzt waren sie endlich unterwegs!« Margery Benson hat einen großen Traum: den goldenen Käfer in Neukaledonien zu finden, den ihr Vater ihr einst in einem Naturkundebuch gezeigt hat. Doch dieser Traum ist über die Jahre hin genauso verdorrt wie Margery selbst. Bis an einem grauen Londoner Morgen mit einem Schlag alles anders wird. Kurz darauf findet sich Margery auf einem Dampfer nach Australien wieder, an ihrer Seite die junge Enid Pretty. Die plapperhafte Sexbombe ist nicht gerade das, was sich Margery als seriöse Begleitung auf ihrer Expedition vorgestellt hat. Doch auch Enid hat ein Geheimnis und hegt einen Traum. Zusammen begeben sich die beiden ungleichen Frauen in ein Abenteuer, das die kühnsten Erwartungen übertrifft. Eine hinreißende Geschichte über Freundschaft und Freiheit: Wie wir den Mut finden, an Träume zu glauben und einander zu helfen, sie zu verwirklichen. »Man kann nicht anders, als sich in die Figuren zu verlieben. Ein aufregendes, berührendes Abenteuer voller unerwarteter Wendungen.« The Observer »Das wunderbare Porträt einer Frauenfreundschaft mit all ihren Widersprüchen und Stärken. Es zeigt, dass wir über uns hinauswachsen können, wenn wir uns von den Ketten der Erwartungen befreien.«Raynor Winn, Autorin des SPIEGEL-Bestsellers »Der Salzpfad« »Preiswürdig: Rachel Joyce' bestes Buch bisher!« The Times Der neue große Roman von Rachel Joyce, Autorin des Welt-Bestsellers »Die unwahrscheinliche Pilgerreise des Harold Fry«.

Miss Bensons Reise

A Faraway Smell of Lemon

On a foggy spring morning in 1972, 11-year-old Byron Hemming and his mother are driving to school in the English countryside. On the way, in a life-changing two seconds, an accident occurs. Or does it? Byron is sure it happened, but his mother, sitting right next to him in the car, has no reaction to it. Over the course of the days and weeks that follow, Byron embarks on a journey to discover what really happened - or didn't - that fateful morning when everything changed.

"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is not just a book about lost love. . . . It is very much a story of present-day courage." --The New York Times Recently retired, sweet, emotionally numb Harold Fry is jolted out of his passivity by a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, who he hasn't heard from in twenty years. She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie--who is 600 miles away--because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die. So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories--flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of his shortcomings as a husband. Ironically, his wife Maureen, shocked by her husband's sudden absence, begins to long for his presence. Is it possible for Harold and Maureen to bridge the distance between them? And will Queenie be alive to see Harold arrive at her door?

The Unlikely Pilgimage of Harold Fry

'Short but very special. ... funny, touching and quite beautiful.' Matt Cain 'A powerful finale to her classic trilogy of heartbreak and healing.' Clare Chambers 'An unforgettable story. It's beautiful all through, but the closing chapters are just astonishing, transcendent and hope-filled and life-affirming.' Donal Ryan 'Just brilliant' Patrick Gale 'Profoundly moving and deeply human, this story of self-discovery and forgiveness is essential reading. I loved every word.' Bonnie Garmus ...................................................................................................................................... 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.

Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North

Das Geheimnis der Queenie Hennessy

Der nie abgeschickte Liebesbrief an Harold Fry

To sekunder i Byron Hemmings' liv

Rachel Joyce zieht uns ins Herz der Zeit. Die Freunde Byron und James sind elf Jahre alt, als sich alles für immer verändert. Niemand sieht das Mädchen mit dem roten Fahrrad. Nur Byron, der mit seiner schönen Mutter im Wagen sitzt, als der Unfall im dichten Nebel geschieht. Byron weiß sofort: Er darf keinem etwas davon erzählen. Doch in nur zwei Sekunden ist die ganze Welt aus den Fugen geraten, und er braucht James an seiner Seite. Können zwei Sekunden existieren, die es vorher nicht gab? Und wird ihre perfekte Welt jemals wieder in den Takt kommen? Eine tief berührende Geschichte über Zerbrechlichkeit und Wahrheit, Freundschaft und Liebe und zwei lebenslange Sekunden. Von der Autorin des Weltbestsellers ›Die unwahrscheinliche Pilgerreise des Harold Fry‹.

Rachel Joyce

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