The unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry by rachel joyce conversation starters limited time offer 399 499 rachel joyces novel the unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry touches on the themes of love loss grief and the journey of life when harold gets word that his old friend queenie has cancer and is in hospice he decides he has to deliver a letter to her. The unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry is a novel by rachel joyce published in 2012 joyces first novel it was a long list finalist for the 2012 man booker prize and joyce won the uk national book award for new writer of the year for the book it was also the best selling hardback book in the uk from a new novelist in 2012. A novel of charm humor and profound insight into the thoughts and feelings we all bury deep within our hearts the unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry introduces rachel joyce as a wise and utterly irresistible storyteller praise for the unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry a gorgeously poignant novel of hope and transformation. The unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry is one of those books for me harold fry is an ordinary older man who has recently retired from his lifelong rather ordinary job he spends his days in a regimented very structured kind of way with his wife of many years maureen it was on one of those ordinary days