I was looking forward to reading another of Rachel Joyce’s books. Unfortunately the strong points of 'the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry', turned out to be this story’s pitfalls. Whereas the slow pace and utterly British settings and characters gave her previous novel a honest touch, they seemed to be second-hand gimmicks in this one. It took me more than 100 pages to get a notion of where the story was heading, and by that time I had lost all interest. The large number of positive reviews made me think that there must be a hidden treasure somewhere, so I kept reading on. Despite some beautifully written passages and the well balanced parallel stories, the novel remained rather dull. I wouldn’t recommend this one.