Wow. What a good story! You should read it.

Harold Fry lives with his wife Maureen in Kingsbridge, in the southwestern part of England. Both are in their 60s, and they have been married for a long time. Harold is now retired. And he and Maureen don't seem to have much to say to each other anymore. At least, not anything that matters.

Unexpectedly, Harold gets a letter from a former co-worker, Queenie Hennessy. She now lives in a hospice facility in Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the most northeastern corner of England. The news is not good. Queenie tells Harold that she has inoperable cancer. Yet she wants to thank him one last time for being kind to her, many years ago. The letter prompts Harold to think a lot about the past. He had not kept in touch with Queenie at all, over the decades. He wants to write an answer to her ... but the handwritten words on paper don't seem to be enough. Without giving it any thought at all, Harold starts walking to deliver his message in person. To hand it to Queenie, who is hundreds of miles away, lying in a hospital bed. Without telling or asking permission from Maureen. Without packing and without taking his cellphone. And without knowing if Queenie will still be breathing, if and when he reaches her.

Walking stimulates the brain as well as the body. Harold has never before had this much solitary time to think. His thoughts run from events in his home life with Maureen and their son, David, to the days in the workplace with Queenie and their terrible, horrible boss. As often happens, the negative stuff appears first. And Harold lapses into the coulda-woulda-shoulda interior dialogue that we tend to dwell on, especially as we get older. He has decades' worth of life to consider. We learn more about him, with every step. He learns more about himself, too.

At the same time, Harold is passing through a landscape that he never noticed before. It's beautiful! Full of nature and a colorful spring. He is meeting and talking to strangers. Most are kind and offer to help. He sees the unexpected good in most of the people he meets. About halfway through the journey, though, Harold falls prey to the inevitable: PUBLICITY. Now even more folks know who he is and what he is doing. How will this sudden local fame affect him and his goal?

Harold's chapters are interrupted by others focusing on Maureen, who is waiting back home. Sure, her husband calls her with updates and sends her postcards. But what's really going on with him? And what's going on with HER? Their time apart is offering her some needed space for thinking, too.

A terrific map drawn by Laura Hartman Maestro is included on one of the opening pages. It works as a handy reference, especially for those of us who are not familiar with English geography. The publishers have made it quite easy to go back and forth to consult the map, to document Harold's progress, and to see how much farther he has to walk.

I found this book accidentally, while browsing the shelves of a thrift shop on a Wednesday. I finished reading it by the wee hours of that Friday morning. The only reason it took me more than a day was because I had to work on Thursday. Otherwise, a reader could easily spend one good rainy or snowy day with this story, and they would not want to stop before reaching the end, on page 320. We want to know what will happen. We want Harold to reach Queenie, so that he can tell her everything he wants to tell her. We want Queenie to recover from her current situation. And we want everything to be resolved with Harold and Maureen and David.

I heartily recommend this compelling book to just about any reader, and especially to those who identify as senior citizens. They will understand Harold's and Maureen's perspectives best of all. Experienced solo travelers will also find connections with Harold's hike and the kinds of personal and introspective space that it offers. We humans tend to be social creatures; but we also need time alone to figure ourselves out. And this is a requirement at any age, not just when we are young. This is one of the lingering themes of this book.

Please read it.