The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to, based on its description. Harold Fry, recently retired, sets off to mail a letter to a work colleague with whom he had lost touch and who has written that she has terminal cancer. But he reaches the postbox much too quickly, and decides to keep walking. After a conversation he has when he stops for a snack, he decides to walk all the way across the island (from southeast England to western Scotland) and deliver the letter personally. During the course of his journey, the familial conflicts that have been haunting Harold slowly unfold, as does the incident that ended his coworker's employment. Although Harold's journey gets slowed up as it gains publicity, and followers, he's not interested in the others' investment in his trip. This book is finally a lyric and moving meditation about how to live after painful losses.