Quotable Friday (36)

A last-minute Quotable Friday this week, in honour of the book I'm reading. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce was a huge hit a couple of years ago and, with a title like that, I've been meaning to read it for ages. When I saw it on the library shelf last week I couldn't resist. It's marvellous. I haven't finished yet, but I adore it and I what I love most about the writing is the way she has of describing things. Her descriptions of weather, locations, people or events are so simple and yet they are so fresh too. There is not the whiff of a cliche in this book.

I am fortunate enough never to have experienced the death of somebody very close to me, but I was still moved by her description of grief (in what is an uplifting book in general!). It shows perfectly what I mean about her writing...

"I know in my head that she has gone, but I still keep looking. The only difference is that I am getting used to the pain. It's like discovering a great hole in the ground. To begin with, you forget it's there and you keep falling in. After a while, it's still there, but you learn to walk round it."