Maureen Fry and The Angel of the North

Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North - Rachel Joyce- Literary fiction

After Harold returned from his travels ten years ago,  (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) his wife Maureen had a hankering to go and see Queenie's garden as Queenie told her that she had put a memorial to Maureen and Harold's son David in it before she died. David died many years beforehand, something Maureen has never got over and feels his loss every day.  She sets off with her flask and sandwiches in the car for a drive of several hundred miles- something she is not used to. On the way she gets lost and encounters various people. Unlike Harold, Maureen is not a people person and struggles to interact as she would really wish. This is the story of her journey in more ways than one.

I loved Harold’s story and this one quickly enveloped me. It's a short story (144 pages) but quickly gets the reader engaged- to me the true skill of an author. We learn about Maureen and even perhaps ourselves as we take the journey with her. “It struck Maureen that a person could be trapped in a version of themselves that was from another time and completely miss the happiness that was right in front of them” . Wow! Sentences like that made me stop in my tracks and think of my own journey through life. This is more than a book or a story. It’s a handbook of life, one to carry and refer to and reflect on a while. An uplifting inspiring read and one that will stay with me. 

For more reviews please follow me on Twitter@nickisbookblog

--------------------------------------------------