Rachel Joyce
2014
4/5 stars
This, the companion book to the Unexpected Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, is Queenie's side of their story. She has a secret that she must share with Harold, to ease her mind before she dies. Writing a letter to Harold as she waits for his visit, Queenie discusses her relationship with Harold and his family, and various bits of her past, as well as slowly revealing the secret. Queenie also introduces other residents of the hospice in touching vignettes. Events that were not fully explained in Harold Fry are filled in excellently and believably. The prose is generally beautiful, the characters surprisingly real, and, while it seems predictable and mundane at first, the secret develops into a complex plot. Though it lacks the charm of Joyce's first novel, Queenie Hennessy is moving, well-written, and engrossing; it will linger in the mind for days after reading.
Note: this book must only be read after reading the Unexpected Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
