Maureen: A Harold Fry Novel

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Epigraph Opening Sticky Closet Doors Chapter 1: Winter Journey Chapter 2: The World’s Guest Chapter 3: Fried Egg Chapter 4: Human Mouths Chapter 5: Sea Garden Chapter 6: Accident-Accident Chapter 7: North and Further North Chapter 8: Truck Chapter 9: Garden of Relics Chapter 10: A Bad Night Chapter 11: Anna Dupree Chapter 12: Coffee Beans Chapter 13: Moonlight Sonata Chapter 14: Winter Bouquet Dedication Acknowledgments Other Titles About the Author A Book Club Guide Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List i ii iii iv v vi vii xi xii xv xvii xviii xix xx xxi 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 127 128 129 130 131 132 xiii 135 136 viii 163 137 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 159 160 161 
 
 
 
 
 PRAISE FOR
 Maureen
 
 
 
 
 “Profoundly moving and deeply human, this story of self-discovery and forgiveness is essential reading. I loved every word.”
 —Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
 “I was enthralled from the first page of this short, powerful book. Maureen is a wonderful, frustrating character—so rigid, and so frightened of what she might learn about herself and her own past. We all have some Maureen inside us, and so the journey we take with her across England and into her own personal tumult is a satisfying, visceral one.”
 —Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward
 “This book is a perfect gem. Fans of Olive Kitteridge and Eleanor Oliphant will love Maureen Fry, and it’s a brilliant coda to the Harold Fry series.”
 —J. Ryan Stradal, bestselling author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota
 “This is a quiet miracle of a book. I loved the absurdity of some scenes and the tenderness of others, and then I was met with the kind of gasp-able (truly—I gasped!) transcendent experience that only the best books can deliver. Rachel Joyce has been a favorite of mine since The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and Maureen only reinforces my idea that she is a master at mixing humor and pathos, and at showing hard truths about life and living that nonetheless make us grateful to be here.”
 —Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv and Earth’s the Right Place for Love
 “I adored Harold and Queenie, but who knew Maureen waited in the wings to steal my heart? A testament to just how exquisitely Rachel Joyce understands people, and written with kindness and such perception. I can’t recommend it enough.”
 —Joanna Cannon, bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and A Tidy Ending
 “Rachel Joyce has a genius for creating the most damaged and difficult characters and making us care deeply about their redemption. Maureen is a powerful finale to her classic trilogy of heartbreak and healing.”
 —Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
 “At last it’s Maureen’s turn! It may only have the physical heft of a novella but Rachel Joyce’s angry-sad latest packs the weight of a long marriage into the space of several well-ironed handkerchiefs. Just brilliant.”
 —Patrick Gale, author of Take Nothing With You and A Place Called Winter
 “Maureen is so beautifully and unflinchingly portrayed—a complex contradiction of brittle and prickly with an underbelly of fragility and fear. Her journey, both physical and psychological, is compelling and profoundly moving and leaves the reader feeling fully satisfied and just a little lighter.”
 —Ruth Hogan, author of Madame Burova and The Keeper of Lost Things
 “Rachel Joyce is deeply attuned to the complex rhythms of life and love and she sublimates this understanding, sentence by delicate, powerful, glistening sentence, into an unforgettable story. It’s beautiful all through, but the closing chapters are just astonishing, transcendent and hope-filled and life-affirming. I’ll never forget this wonderful novel or the sunny, slightly teary day I spent reading it.”
 —Donal Ryan, author of The Queen of Dirt Island and Strange Flowers
 “Beautifully written and endlessly touching, Rachel Joyce once again captures what it means to be human in the final book of her wonderful trilogy.”
 —Phaedra Patrick, author of The Book Share and The Library of Lost and Found
 “This book is short but very special. As fans of Rachel Joyce might expect, it’s funny, touching and quite beautiful. It’s also packed with wisdom about love and loss—and is sure to provide comfort to anyone who’s known grief.”
 —Matt Cain, author of The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle
 “In this slender, lyrical novel, Rachel Joyce offers a story as epic and encompassing as that wide-armed Angel of the North. A journey of redemption, forgiveness and love. A journey you don’t want to miss.”
 —Helen Paris, author of Lost Property
 “Maureen is the sort of person we pass in the street every day, every hour, and probably give little thought to. She is difficult, perhaps, a little brittle, unable to engage successfully with the world, and maybe hard to warm to—an embattled figure often lost against the vast opera of life. But Rachel allows us to see into her complex universe, feel firsthand her fears, the profound longing, the grim phantoms of the past, the ordered rebelliousness, and strange, dark sense of humor—and of shame. This story also happens