The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
Price: £5.61
Fulfilled by Amazon

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Trade in Yours
For a £1.49 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
See 1 customer image
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Start reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry [Hardcover]

Rachel Joyce (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,328 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £10.39 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.60 (20%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Temporarily out of stock.
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £2.69   -- --
Hardcover £10.39   -- --
Paperback £3.85   -- --
Audio, CD, Audiobook --   -- --
Multimedia CD --   -- --
Audio Download, Unabridged £15.07 or Free with Audible.co.uk 30-day free trial
Rising Stars
Amazon Rising Stars
This book has featured in Amazon Rising Stars. Check out Rising Stars and discover great up and coming talent.

Book Description

Publication Date: 15 Mar 2012

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012: 'The odyssey of a simple man, original, subtle and touching' - Claire Tomalin

When Harold Fry leaves home one morning to post a letter, with his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other.

He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone.

All he knows is that he must keep walking.

To save someone else's life.

'Wonderful' - Guardian

Frequently Bought Together

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry + The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
Price For Both: £14.24

One of these items is dispatched sooner than the other.

Buy the selected items together

Product details

  • Hardcover: 296 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (15 Mar 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0857520644
  • ISBN-13: 978-0857520647
  • Product Dimensions: 16.2 x 2.9 x 22.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,328 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 7,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Rachel Joyce Page
Rachel Joyce
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Review

"From the moment I met Harold Fry, I didn't want to leave him. Impossible to put down" (Erica Wagner The Times)

"Deploying meticulously precise and deceptively light-as-air prose, Joyce takes Harold across the bitter wastelands of regret to the sunlit uplands of emotional redemption with a ­clarity that is at times almost unbearably moving" (Karen Robinson The Sunday Times)

"Distinguished by remarkable confidence... Polished to perfection... Joyce's experience as a playwright shows in her ear for dialogue and eye for character diatom - even the walk-on parts stay with you as real people. She handles her material with deceptive lightness but Harold's journey towards a better version of himself is totemic. To read about him is to be moved to follow him" (Daily Telegraph 2012-03-10)

"This cleverly done, admirably clear-sighted novel skirts the sloughs of saccharine and whimsy, coming to an almost unbearably moving conclusion. An instant book-group classic" (Daily Mail 2012-03-23)

"A terrific book, comic and sad and very honest. Harold is a wonderfully-drawn character... his story is at the same time emotionally gruelling and yet ultimately uplifting." (Joanne Harris)

Book Description

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012. Rachel Joyce is the Specsavers National Book Awards New Writer of the Year 2012.

A tender, quietly comic, heartstopping first novel from a powerful new voice in fiction.

See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
373 of 379 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Charming, touching and engaging story 5 Jan 2012
By L. H. Healy TOP 100 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This is a delightful, poignant tale of a retired couple, Harold and Maureen, living out their days in Devon, when something happens that will change their future. And it is such a small occurrence on the face of it - a letter arrives for Harold from a former colleague of his at the brewery, Queenie Hennessy. Harold writes a reply, and he sets off down the road to post it. But then he continues walking. And carries on walking, and it becomes his purpose to get to Queenie, to save her, all the hundreds of miles away up in a Hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed, on foot, in just his yachting shoes.

Beautifully understated, the story plays out so well, there is sadness, some very touching moments, and there is some very well-observed gentle humour too. For Harold, and for Maureen, there is the time and space to take stock and think about their lives together, their son David, and about the events in the past that have brought them to where they are now. Can things be different for them; can they heal the divide that has grown? The reader is not party to the full story until close to the end of the novel. So we can only guess at the reason behind Harold's determination, whatever the odds, to get to Queenie, though we know it's not romantic love.

There is hope despite the difficult times. There is some lovely prose as Harold recognises and admires the nature all around him. His journey becomes more than just one that concerns himself and Queenie; it grows to involve the people he meets on his way, such a variety, by and large he is enriched by his encounters and buoyed by them. He is taken into strangers' confidences, and realises that so many people, despite appearances, have this inner torment that they carry with them. There are beautiful, simple but striking insights into humans, made through Harold.

This is a gentle, touching and rewarding tale, and what a promising, engaging first novel; it's a real accomplishment. I feel sure very many readers will enjoy this.
3 Comments | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
227 of 242 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book 31 Dec 2011
By Maggie TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Be prepared to confront your personal demons when you read this book. For the mature reader in particular, I challenge you not to find something in this novel to make you at the least uneasy. It is ultimately an uplifting story, but along the way there is a great deal of pain and for many there will be uncomfortable home truths about things that we could have handled better, regrets about slipping into complacency and about the loss of passion. There is the terrible pain caused by the loss of a child; the guilt engendered by failure to appreciate and help a friend; the estrangement of a once-loving couple - and the knowledge that many of these things cannot be put right however much you want to.

Harold's walk is the vehicle for exploring these ideas and more. A very ordinary and unassuming man, not in any sense a hero, Harold's whim to walk to Berwick on Tweed to see a dying friend and by so doing to save her from cancer, provides the author with the opportunity to weave in the stories of many other people who, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, are living "lives of quiet desperation". The people he meets on his journey are often kind and generous but many are battling their own demons. At one point the simple pilgrimage that Harold has unwittingly created clashes with our modern world of celebrity - represented by the PR men and tabloid journalists - and you pray for Harold to escape all this and revert to his simple goal.

In the end Harold and his wife Maureen - a somewhat stereotypical middle-aged woman with net curtains and a clipped way of speaking that discourages anything unconventional - do find resolution and redemption. To say more would spoil the story. Do read it - it will make you laugh and cry but it will not leave you untouched.
14 Comments | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
53 of 57 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelming 23 Aug 2012
By Jade66
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I glanced at a few of the reviews before buying this book, none of them do it justice and I doubt if mine will either. This is a wonderful story that entertains and disquiets in equal measure. Ostensibly it is about a man, just retired, who sets out to walk from Devon to Berwick on Tweed after receiving a letter from an old work colleague. The colleague, Queenie, is dying of cancer. Harold pens a quick reply and sets off to post it, but somehow the posting of this letter seems inadequate. He decides instead to walk the 500 odd miles to Berwick, taking us with him.

It is clear very early on that Harold's life has been a disappointment. An inability to connect with his son, (stemming from his own neglectful childhood) has driven a stake between him and his wife, Maureen, and what was once a good marriage has deteriorated into a hopeless desert of non communication.

It is during his long walk that we discover all about Harold, and Maureen, and their son David, and all about the long held grievances and misunderstandings that have culminated in their isolation and loneliness. Sometimes these memories are extremely painful and I found myself moved beyond belief at this fictional tale.

One of the 2 star reviews on this page unbelievably states "nothing much happens". Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything happens as this endearing man struggles to make sense of his life, struggles to find hope and optimism when doors have been closed resolutely in his face, and struggles to assert his humanity on an indifferent world.

This is a story about all those things we leave unsaid, of all those regrets we fight daily to forget. Wonderful writing, clear recognizable characters, a story that won't leave you, and an examination in depth of all those weird and wonderful contradictions that make us what we are.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and heart breaking
I thought this book was wonderful in every way. The realism of loss, loneliness of parents coping with grief and relationships are beautifully drawn.
Published 24 minutes ago by Darbie
5.0 out of 5 stars A long walk.
U was recommended this book by a friend and thoroughly enjoyed it. The way the story progresses makes you unwilling to put it down. Read more
Published 35 minutes ago by Denis
3.0 out of 5 stars Repetitive
I enjoyed reading this book at the outset but found the story to be too drawn out and repetitive. I struggled to finish it,nothing to grip you and keep you going.
Published 4 hours ago by Paula
5.0 out of 5 stars Page turner
I chose this for my book group based on other reviews on Amazon and it was a big hit, everyone loved it. Read more
Published 13 hours ago by E A M
5.0 out of 5 stars unforgettable
A very affecting book touching on a wide range of human emotions that at some point would relate to all who read it.
Published 14 hours ago by PHILIP and Sian STEDMAN
5.0 out of 5 stars the wonderful Harold Fry
This would not normally be the type of book or author I would read but I was pleasantly surprised. I couldn't wait to return to it to find out what happened next. Read more
Published 14 hours ago by norman
2.0 out of 5 stars The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry
This book was such a break from the ordinary. It gives me faith in the relationships we have with our loved ones it's never to late to embrace change
Published 1 day ago by miss j c Faid
5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun
This book is laugh alound funny. My sister recommeneded it to me and I did wonder if I would like it, but found it to be very readable.
Published 1 day ago by Stella Ethridge
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
This was good reading. It was poignant, funny, good fun, I liked Arnold fry, liked his wife too after all
Published 1 day ago by maureen carroll
4.0 out of 5 stars A sweet story if rather far-fetched!
The best thing for me about this book was the author's style which I found a great pleasure to read. Read more
Published 1 day ago by H D. Steel
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      No discussions yet

      Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       


      Active discussions in related forums
      Search Customer Discussions
      Search all Amazon discussions
         
      Related forums

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback


      Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges