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

The Music Shop

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

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.

Perfect

From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes the final piece of the Harold Fry trilogy, revisiting the characters ten years on to tell a story about loss and love and forgiveness. Ten years after her husband, Harold Fry, made his extraordinary walk across England to try and save a dying friend, Maureen Fry makes her own pilgrimage, and although she packs a proper bag and takes the car, her trip will be equally transformative. Unlike her husband, Maureen does not make friends easily, and she is not entirely sure what she hopes to find at the end of the road, but this is a journey she knows she must make, whatever obstacles present themselves on the way. This is a novel about finding your place in the world, and discovering how we connect to each other; about loss, and love and learning to forgive others, and most of all ourselves.

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 pilgrimage, Maureen will discover a way to reconnect with the world she’s closed a door on. “Profoundly moving and deeply human, this story of self-discovery and forgiveness is essential reading. I loved every word.”—Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry Only she can finish the journey her husband started. Maureen and Harold Fry have settled into a quiet life, but when an unexpected message from the North disturbs their peaceful equilibrium, Maureen realizes that it’s now her turn to make a journey. But she is not like her affable, easygoing husband. By turns outspoken, then vulnerable, she struggles to form bonds with the people she meets—and the landscape she crosses has radically changed. 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. A deeply felt, lyrical, and powerful novel, Maureen explores love, loss, and how we come to terms with the past in order to understand ourselves a little better. While this book 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. Like those beloved books, Maureen has all the power and weight of a classic.

Bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Rachel Joyce presents her latest novel, exquisite and perfectly pitched, about a love story and a journey through music. It's 1988. The CD has arrived. Sales of the shiny new disks are soaring on high streets in cities across England. Meanwhile, down a dead-end street, Frank's music shop stands small and brightly lit, jam-packed with records of every kind. It attracts the lonely, the sleepless, the adrift. There is room for everyone. Frank has a gift for finding his customers the music they need. Into this shop arrives Ilse Brauchmann—practical, brave, well-heeled. Frank falls for this curious woman who always dresses in green. But Ilse's reasons for visiting the shop are not what they seem. Frank's passion for Ilse seems as misguided as his determination to save vinyl. How can a man so in tune with other people's needs be so incapable of helping himself? And what will it take to show he loves her? The Music Shop is a story about good, ordinary people who take on forces too big for them. It's about falling in love and how hard it can be. And it's about music—how it can bring us together when we are divided and save us when all seems lost.

Miss Benson's Beetle

BBC Radio 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME from 17-28 July. From the author of the world-wide bestseller, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a new novel about learning how to listen and how to feel; and about second chances and choosing to be brave despite the odds. Because in the end, music can save us all ... 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 ... LISTEN WHILE YOU READ! You can find specially collated The Music Shop playlists for Father Anthony, Kit, Maud and Hector on Spotify. This hardback edition is beautifully produced, with stunning decorated insides.

Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy Znak

Znak (Publisher)

Niezwykła wędrówka Harolda Fry

Jeune retraité à la vie bien rangée, malmené par une épouse exaspérée par le moindre de ses gestes, Harold Fry reçoit un matin une lettre de Queenie, une vieille amie perdue de vue qui lui annonce sa mort prochaine. Une lettre à laquelle Harold s’empresse de répondre mais qu'il ne postera jamais. Mû par l'intuition qu’il doit remettre cette lettre en main propre à son amie et que, tant qu’il marchera, elle vivra, sans boussole ni carte, sans téléphone ni chaussures de marche, Harold entame une traversée de près de 1 000 km à travers l'Angleterre. L’occasion pour lui de réfléchir sur sa vie : son enfance douloureuse entre un père alcoolique et une mère absente, sa relation avec sa femme, Maureen, et leur première rencontre, ses rendez-vous manqués avec son fils David, sa vie professionnelle ratée, l’alcool, Queenie... Le destin d’un homme ordinaire prêt à traverser à pied un pays tout entier sur la seule certitude qu’il peut par ce geste sauver son amie.

roman

La lettre qui allait changer le destin d'Harold Fry arriva le mardi

"It's 1988. The CD has arrived. Sales of the shiny new disks are soaring on high streets in cities across the country. Meanwhile, down a dead-end street, Frank's music shop stands small and brightly lit, jam-packed with records of every kind. It attracts the lonely, the sleepless, the adrift. There is room for everyone. Frank has a gift for finding his customers the music they need. Into this shop arrives Ilse Brauchmann - practical, brave, well-heeled. Frank falls for this curious woman who always dresses in green. But Ilse's reasons for visiting the shop are not what they seem. Frank's passion for Ilse seems as misguided as his determination to save vinyl. How can a man so in tune with other people's needs be so incapable of helping himself? And what will it take to show he loves her? The Music Shop is a story about good, ordinary people who take on forces too big for them. It's about falling in love and how hard it can be. And it's about music - how it can bring us together when we are divided and save us when all seems lost"--

From the author of the international bestseller, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, comes another exquisite and emotionally resonant novel about the search for the truth and unconditional love. On a foggy spring morning in 1972, twelve-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. It is a journey that will take him—a loveable and cloistered twelve-year-old boy with a loveable and cloistered twelve-year-old boy's perspective on life—into the murkier, more difficult realities of the adult world, where people lie, fathers and mothers fight without words and even unwilling boys must become men. Byron will have to reconcile the dueling realities of that summer, a testament to the perseverance of the human spirit and the power of compassion.

'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.

From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North

Harold Fryn kävely halki Englannin kasvaa viisaaksi vaellukseksi kohti uutta löytämisen iloa. Kaukaa näkee paremmin lähelle.

Rachel Joyce

About

Books

Join the club