Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North

by Rachel Joyce

Doubleday

I had the great pleasure at the Franschhoek Literary Festival of interviewing Rachel Joyce about her latest book, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North, as well as her involvement in the movie of her first book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry as well as my personal favourite, Miss Benson’s Beetle.  What a joy! Rachel is brilliant at creating characters who are stuck in terrible ruts and propelling them forward in the most heart-warming of ways.  Maureen Fry is exactly that – the third book of the trilogy is about Harold Fry’s wife Maureen who, ten years after her husband, is finally making a journey herself.  She’s prickly and crotchety and not good with people but you just cant help backing her in her quest to come to terms with the past.  It’s a small little book with a big, big heart.  I loved it!

Joyce bestows tenderness and grace, revealing how forgiveness and a reckoning with the past can transform the present for the better. –  Mail on Sunday

Joyce is a fearless explorer of emotional landscape; Maureen’s pilgrimage north becomes a moving account of healing and acceptance. –  UK Sunday Times

Exquisite and beautifully crafted – Daily Mail

A beautiful novella … with compassion and tenderness … the novel’s conclusion is deeply moving and life-affirming. – Observer

This short novel packs a big punch as Joyce paints an intimate portrait of fragility and grief, allowing us to experience unbearable pain but redemption too. – Daily Express