Preview
  • Maureen

  • A Harold Fry Novel
  • By: Rachel Joyce
  • Narrated by: Penelope Wilton
  • Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (135 ratings)

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Maureen

By: Rachel Joyce
Narrated by: Penelope Wilton
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Publisher's summary

“A touching tale about heartbreak and healing . . . If you loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fryand The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, make time to read this finale to the trilogy.”—Good Housekeeping

Ten years ago, Harold Fry set off on a six-hundred-mile walk to save a friend. But the story doesn’t end there. Now his wife, Maureen, has her own pilgrimage to make.

Only she can finish the journey her husband started.

Maureen and Harold Fry have settled into a quiet life, but when an unexpected message from the North disturbs their peaceful equilibrium, Maureen realizes that it’s now her turn to make a journey. But she is not like her affable, easygoing husband. By turns outspoken, then vulnerable, she struggles to form bonds with the people she meets—and the landscape she crosses has radically changed. Maureen has no sense of what she will find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she has to get there.

A deeply felt, lyrical, and powerful novel, Maureen explores love, loss, and how we come to terms with the past in order to understand ourselves a little better. While this book stands alone, it is also the extraordinarily moving finale to a trilogy that began with the phenomenal bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and continued in The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. Like those beloved books, Maureen has all the power and weight of a classic.

©2023 Rachel Joyce (P)2023 Random House Audio
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Interview: With Her Stories, Rachel Joyce Finds Hope and Renewal in the Face of Grief

'I think the writer is just basically a very good therapist...'
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  • Maureen
  • 'I think the writer is just basically a very good therapist...'

Editorial Review

A beautiful end cap to a multifaceted journey
While Maureen has been described as the ending of a trilogy, Rachel Joyce writes that the fan who first suggested the idea of continuing Harold Fry's story actually called it a tryptic. And the description feels apt: This is a work of art. The remarkable Penelope Wilton (who stars alongside Harold Fry's narrator, Jim Broadbent, in an upcoming film) voices Maureen, bringing her astringent and seemingly inflexible personality to being, but modulating to provide glimpses of the grieving mother who is just trying to hold it together for herself, her husband, and the son whose ghost lies at the heart of the entire series. I was so sorry to come to the end of this beautiful journey, but Joyce provides a fitting and incredibly satisfying conclusion for these characters that so many have come to love so dearly. —Emily C., Audible Editor

What listeners say about Maureen

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A poignant trilogy

I thoroughly enjoyed Harold Fry. When I saw that Rachel Joyce had written a book from Queenie‘s point of view, and then Maureen‘s, I listened to Queenie‘s next. Both of the first two books were excellent, and I thought that they could be standalone stories. However, when I finished Maureen, I felt the closure of a very moving story. I highly recommend all three books.

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3 people found this helpful

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Amazing

Few books have moved me the way this book did. It is well written, thoughtful and potent. Rachel Joyce is a fantastic writer and her books never disappoint.

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Beautiful story

It’s Maureen’s turn: a moving and sometimes wryly funny story about her trying to come to terms with her loss. Lovely trilogy!

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Excellent!

Loved it—in Audible, read by Penelope Wilton. The author so skillfully blends bits of the previous stories to bring the reader back up to speed. It’s been a while since I’d read Queenie’s story, so I needed that!

Maureen is a persnickety character in the other two novels, gruff really. But, in this book, she travels to Queenie’s garden on her own, taking her completely out of her routines, her home and out of her comfort zone, which is truly Harold.

She is searching for David, her son, who is lost in an unimaginable way. In this search, she finds a version of David, but also finds herself and a new way to see her own life and the lives around her. This book was enormously satisfying in its ability to round out all three novels in just what amounted to only three listening hours! And three hours with Penelope Wilton are well spent on any day! ❤️

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Poignant

Poignant, wise, well written. Maureen’s final transition through grief is an inspiration. Loved the narrator

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Superb

The three Harold Fry novels, of which this is the beautiful conclusion, just might be my favorite books ever.

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Heartfelt

A deep look into Maureen's soul, exposing the grief which she so carefully wrapped up in layers and layers, trying to protect herself from it. Only when it's so painfully exposed can Maureen begin to heal. Beautifully and gently we begin to understand Maureen as she begins to understand herself.

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A continuation in the Harold Fry stories

Not what I was expecting but beautifully done. I don’t feel like this book will hold the same place in my heart the way Harold and Queenie’s stories do, but it give greater insight to Maureen and her trying so hard to fit in to her life. I would still love to read David’s story.

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Life’s toughest journey, unvarnished, superbly read.

Penelope Wilton is the perfect reader— she really made Maureen come alive, I felt she understood and captured all the characters with grace and made each an individual. Bravo!

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A different kind of journey

I absolutely loved Harold’s story, then Queenie’s, but wasn’t excited about hearing Maureen’s. I didn’t find her all that likable in the previous two books. But I’m glad I gave her a go, as she had quite the journey as well, a different kind of journey, a journey through grief and self awareness, forgiveness and compassion. An unlikable character doesn’t always make for a bad read/listen. I definitely recommend giving Maureen a listen.

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2 people found this helpful