Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North: From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Harold Fry, 3)

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Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North : From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry EPUB People imagined they might reach each other, but it wasn’t true. No one understood another’s grief or another’s joy. People were not see-through at all.” This book is set ten years after the events in the first two books. Maureen has discovered, from one of Harold's former walking partners, that Queenie Hennessey had made a sea garden in the dunes near her former home, which was now called The Garden of Relics. Part of this garden is a shrine to Harold and Maureen's son, David, who had committed suicide thirty years before at the age of 20 - and Maureen is determined to visit the garden to see this shrine. So, with Harold's support, she sets off to drive to Northumberland to visit Queenie's garden, which turns into another journey of self-discovery, this time on Maureen's part.... This was David. This was him. This was angry; It was violent... Too fragile for the world and yet full of youth and complication and pomp and arrogance. She did not know how such a piece of wood could have survived the wind and rain and yet, secure in Queenie's Garden, it had held fast."

Thanks you to Rachel Joyce, Dial Press, and NetGalley for this poignant story which has already published. It’s going to be a long trip. It’s ten years since Harold make his long trek to visit Queenie Hennessy, and since then, Maureen has been haunted by something she knew about Queenie that she has never disclosed to Harold. Maureen is no tiptoe through the tulips, waving at butterflies type of woman. There has been too much hurt and embarrassment from her childhood belief that she was the center of the world and that she would be the one to conquer it every step of the way. As early as her first days in school she learned she wasn't all that after all and it was downhill from there. Once Harold and Maureen had their only son, she wanted to be the best parent to him but things did not work out at all. I think the term "difficult child" applied to both Maureen and David and that difficulty can lead to the term "difficult adult". The last of the Harold Fry trilogy, this time featuring Maureen, Harold's wife. She hears about Queenie's garden in Embleton Bay and that her son David is in it, so she makes a pilgrimage of her own to see it, to find him in it.

This was a poignant, lovely read, filled with compassion, a story of both growth and healing with a perfect ending.

I was reading mostly for the sake of it until the moment Maureen had her accident in the garden, and then the whole direction of the story changed. Maybe her redemption came a little too fast and a little too easily but it was tear jerking stuff. For me this was going to be a three star book, but I am giving it an extra star just for the last couple of chapters. Maureen isn't the easiest person to like. There is no way she could be described as a 'people person'. She is rigid in both her beliefs and actions. What other people think matters very much. And yet, like her I did. I was mortified for her over her little 'accident'. I cringed along with her at Kate's living conditions. I wanted to grab her and make her sit down and properly take in Queenie's garden. But of course, I couldn't.

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Reduced by physical injury, Maureen has to accept the kindness and care Kate unstintingly gives. Captive in her disability, she connects with sweet little Maple, Kate’s granddaughter, and eventually, finally, Maureen comes to terms with her grief over David.

Along the way, Maureen encounters many people who help shape her story in different ways. Each person helps Maureen confront different aspects of herself, whether it’s courage or vulnerability or strength – and by the end of the book, readers have seen a full transformation in Maureen. This is book 3 in the Harold Fry trilogy and while it helps to have read them all, it’s not essential. It’s been years since I read Harold so I could barely remember him and it didn’t matter. Maureen is very much a character in her own right and this story is hers and hers alone. Profoundly moving and deeply human, this story of self-discovery and forgiveness is essential reading. I loved every word.' Bonnie GarmusAlong the way she learns some necessary lessons. All her life she's felt she was 'being measured against something she didn't understand and would never get right.' Maybe that's why she has a tendency to judge other people, before they have the chance to judge her. Maureen is the third book of Rachel Joyce’s Harold Fry trilogy. As such, it completes the story begun 10 years ago with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by allowing his wife, Maureen, to venture into the world herself in search of answers or closure on problems that have been crushing her for years. She will drive, not walk, but she will also make a northward journey, encountering strangers and having no clue how to deal with them. She is not Harold. Along the way, we learn of her love for Harold but also of her biggest disappointments and her distrust of much of everything else in her life.