The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Rachel Joyce wrote The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, her first novel, when her father was in the final stages of lung cancer.  It was a great little story.  A retired man named Harold goes to mail a letter.  He doesn't stop at the first mail box or the second mail box.  Instead he ends up walking 500 miles to see Queenie, a former female coworker who is in a hospice.  Harold is a quiet and passive man; extremely passive.  Walking 500 miles on a whim is totally out of character for him.  Sometimes the book is a little bit slow.  But walking 500 miles is also slow for a retired man like Harold.  Some days he can only walk 6 miles.  He didn't plan for this trip.  He doesn't have the right shoes.  He forgot his cell phone.  He doesn't even have a map.  The story takes place in Britain where they have towns that are 6 miles apart because such a pilgrimage would never work here.  Our towns are too far apart.  I worried about Harold on his pilgrimage.  Will he make it before Queenie dies?  Is he physically able to walk that far? Will someone hurt Harold? What about his marriage with Maureen?  What about his relationship with his son, David?  If you read this book you will likely come to like Harold as much as I did.