The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy

Fans of Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry probably could not imagine the author writing a sequel to that shimmering book—and she hasn't. Her new novel is a parallel tale that delves deeply into the story of Queenie Hennessy, Harold Fry's old friend from the brewery whose letter prompted him to take that long, long walk across England. The novel, which mirrors the structure of its predecessor without feeling slavish, opens with a letter from Harold arriving for Queenie at St. Bernadine's Hospice. He's coming to her on foot, telling her to wait, and she panics. She's never revealed to him why she left Kingsbridge so abruptly, feeling that she is complicit in a terrible sadness in Harold's life, and has been living in solitude by the sea and tending a garden she's created to atone. A new nun, Sister Mary Inconnue, comes to the rescue, insisting that she will help Queenie write a letter telling all, which Harold can read upon his arrival.