“The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry” by Rachel Joyce, review by Daniela Domenici

 

I thank the friend who has lent me this book which notwithstanding its big size (300 pages) and the slow pace of the story I have read in few days and has captivated me; one of the most fascinating book of recent times, it is understandable and fuly justified the enormous number of positive reviews it has received in Amazon and the success that Rachel Joyce has had since it was published. The translation “in two voices” by Maurizio Bartocci and Chiara Brovelli is very good.

The journey which the protagonist, the elder Harold Fry, decides one day unpredictably to start, without telling his wife and without any right equipment, from the south to the north of England, on foot, nearly 1.000 kilometers, after receiving a letter, to go and visit a former colleague and friend, Queenie, who is dyong of cancer and has written him, is a geographical journey buti t is, above all, an interior one which each of us should start, also shorter than Harold’s one.

During the journey Harold (and we too with him) thinks back on many events of his life with his wife Maureen, his son david, his job, his life with his father and mother and he slowly bring them to light, has the courage to look at them, examine them with great grief as never before, understanding them and himself too, until the final conclusion either of the geographical journey or the one inside him which has moved me so much. I read in the cover and I agree: “it’s the best celebration of friendship, of love and of dreams which you will ever read”.

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