Maureen - by Rachel Joyce (Paperback)

About the Book

"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"--

Book Synopsis

"A touching tale about heartbreak and healing . . . If you loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fryand The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, make time to read this finale to the trilogy."--Good Housekeeping

Ten years ago, Harold Fry set off on a six-hundred-mile walk to save a friend. But the story doesn't end there. Now his wife, Maureen, has her own pilgrimage to make.

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.

Review Quotes

"A beautiful novella about motherhood, grief and the power of forgiveness. . . . Prickly and wary of strangers, Maureen is nonetheless portrayed with compassion and tenderness by Joyce, and the novel's conclusion is deeply moving and life-affirming."--The Observer

"This slim novella . . . contains a world of emotion . . . The kindness of strangers is Joyce's theme, as well as forgiveness and grief. No one writes difficult feelings better."--The Daily Mail

"This book echoes 'Harold Fry'--the journey brings some redemption, some understanding, and some peace. . . . Joyce gets brilliantly right the physical details of the trip, as well as Maureen's emotional transformation. It is not sudden, it is not miraculous, it is not complete, but it is entirely believable. . . . Joyce is an empathetic writer, and the story is one of hope and redemption." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A real treat . . . A story about belonging and understanding."--Prima

"[This] slim, lyrical book . . . delves deeply into a character who is at once familiar and enigmatic. . . . Bittersweet and quietly stunning, Maureen is a poignant end to Joyce's trilogy about the Frys and a meditation on opening up and moving forward."--Shelf Awareness

"I was enthralled from the first page of this short, powerful book. We all have some Maureen inside us, and so the journey we take with her across England and into her own personal tumult is a satisfying, visceral one."--Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward

"This book is a perfect gem. Fans of Olive Kitteridge and Eleanor Oliphant will love Maureen Fry, and it's a brilliant coda to the Harold Fry series."--J. Ryan Stradal, bestselling author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota

"This is a quiet miracle of a book. Rachel Joyce is a master at mixing humor and pathos, and at showing hard truths about life that nonetheless make us grateful to be here."--Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv and Earth's the Right Place for Love

"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

"I adored Harold and Queenie, but who knew Maureen waited in the wings to steal my heart? A testament to just how exquisitely Rachel Joyce understands people, and written with kindness and such perception. I can't recommend it enough."--Joanna Cannon, bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and A Tidy Ending

"Maureen is so beautifully and unflinchingly portrayed--a complex contradiction of brittle and prickly with an underbelly of fragility and fear. Her journey is compelling and profoundly moving and leaves the reader feeling fully satisfied and just a little lighter."--Ruth Hogan, author of Madame Burova and The Keeper of Lost Things

About the Author

Rachel Joyce is the author of the novels The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop, and Miss Benson's Beetle, as well as the digital short story A Faraway Smell of Lemon and a story collection, A Snow Garden & Other Stories. Her books have sold over five million copies worldwide and have been translated into thirty-six languages. Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize, and is soon to be a major film starring Jim Broadbent. Joyce has been the Specsavers National Book Awards "New Writer of the Year" and shortlisted for "UK Author of the Year." Joyce has also written more than thirty original afternoon plays and adaptions of the classics for BBC Radio 4, including all the Brontë novels. She moved to writing after a long career as an actor, performing leading roles for the RSC, the National Theatre, and Cheek by Jowl. She lives with her family in Gloucestershire.