The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy

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The Love Song is about living and dying with dignity, friendship, love, about regrets and acceptance, and how people have the capacity to make people who don't know them fall in love with them. A beautiful book ... both desperately sad and sweetly uplifting - even funny... I really did love it. Lucy Reber, Stylist

Queenie had an unrequited love for Harold Fry the entire time they worked together at the brewery. She left the brewery decades ago and moved to the other end of England. Now, she is dying of cancer. When Harold learns, he begins walking the length of England to see her. The story of that walk encompassed The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Now, we hear from Queenie, as she awaits Harold’s arrival at her hospice. Unable to talk, she writes out her story, basically a confession of the secrets she hid years ago. In between times, Queenie writes and writes some more. Even when she is fatigued and her hand is sore, she continues to write. Her story unfolds like memories do: sometimes 24 years ago, sometimes 4 years ago, and sometimes even further than 24 years ago. Queenie is writing a very long letter; she is also composing a love song. Queenie also knows that she will not be finished until she has written Harold with all the secrets she has harbored for years. Queenie burns for Harold’s forgiveness for one secret in particular. In this poignant parallel story to Harold’s saga, acclaimed author Rachel Joyce brings Queenie Hennessy’s voice into sharp focus. Setting pen to paper, Queenie makes a journey of her own, a journey that is even bigger than Harold’s; one word after another, she promises to confess long-buried truths—about her modest childhood, her studies at Oxford, the heartbreak that brought her to Kingsbridge and to loving Harold, her friendship with his son, the solace she has found in a garden by the sea. And, finally, the devastating secret she has kept from Harold for all these years. And, for the record, I still would say that I have not written a sequel to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I have not written a prequel either. What I have written is a book that sits alongside Harold Fry. They really should come that way—­her in the passenger seat, him in the driver’s seat. Side by side.

When Harold and Queenie finally meet at the end, Queenie says, “See me, Harold, I said. And you did. You looked and looked and you saw me.” Were you waiting and hoping for them to have this moment together? Did you feel fulfilled by it? If you loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, as I undoubtedly did, then this is the companion book, to be read just as soon as you have put that book down and composed yourself. It made me remember how selfish we are as young adults, so uncertain in ourselves, but so certain that we know so much more than our parents. His unlikely pilgrimage captivates the other hospice residents, with whom Queenie - who has kept herself apart since her arrival - slowly makes friends.

This morning I asked Sister Lucy if I could borrow a dictionary and a thesaurus. She fetched Pictionary and a throat lozenge. ‘Also a glass of water,’ she said helpfully.” Sister Catherine studied her yellow note. “He said to tell you that as long as he walks, you must wait. He also said he’s setting off from Kingsbridge.” She turned to the other nuns and volunteers. “Kingsbridge? Does anyone know where that is?”This one is a truly dark horse and it is one of the top five books I've ever heard. I'm sad I can only give it 5 stars. Joyce nicely calls the book a companion rather than a sequel. But The Love Song is bolder than a retread of the same material from another angle... . After two such involving novels, readers are bound to wish for a third." - The Telegraph The author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry hits a darker but no less compelling note ... However, the book is not without its own pleasurable uplift: a spiritual wind beneath its wings … perhaps it adds necessary ballast to the sparkling balloon of Harold's journey – and it will certainly find a grateful readership. The Guardian Waiting with Queenie are the other dying patients at the hospice and the gentle nuns who care for them. Harold's postcards sent from the road give them all a small measure of hope, that they too can hang on to await his arrival. Where we get Harold's story from his thoughts and encounters along the road, Queenie relates her history in a letter to Harold, since she can no longer speak because of her tumor. We know from the first book that Harold gets to Queenie just before she dies, but there is a surprising twist at the end regarding her letter.