Our main characters are two lonely, awkward people: geography teacher Michael, 42, has recently separated from his wife (Natasha), and is avoiding their empty home in York by taking longer and longer solo walks in the English countryside. By contrast, Marnie, 38, a freelance editor and proofreader who works from home, spends her days holed up in her small London apartment, increasingly isolated since the departure of her husband Neil, as well as the pandemic lockdowns. All her friends are married and busy with their families. (Hmm, this sounds familiar...)
Both Marnie and Michael are invited by their mutual friend Cleo to accompany her and a group of friends to hike a section of the Coast-to-Coast Walk through the scenic English countryside. Michael agrees -- but he intends to keep walking the entire 192 miles -- a journey that will take about 10 days to complete (and will end close to where Natasha is now living). And Marnie finds herself deciding to walk "just one more day" along with him -- day after day after day...
It's obvious these two are destined to fall in love (despite Cleo's plans to matchmake them both with other members of the group!). But there are plenty of twists and turns and unexpected stumbles and disappointments and discoveries along the way.
I loved following Michael and Marnie on their journey together (physical and otherwise). (I imagine there's been an uptick in people walking this trail since the book came out -- and I think a movie, properly done and filmed on location, would be wonderful!) I loved that Marnie was an editor/proofreader (echoes of my previous life in the corporate world...), and some of her observations about the job made me laugh out loud. :)
And as someone who is childless not by choice, I very much appreciated the revelations that both Marnie and Michael are too. As I said in my original review, "This is one of those rare novels where we CNBCers see our stories clearly and sympathetically reflected." Beyond the childless angle, it was nice to see two middle-aged characters gradually awakening to the possibility of second chances and new possibilities.
My original rating for this book stands -- 4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 5 on Goodreads.
This was Book #3 read to date in 2026 (and Book #2 finished in February), bringing me to 8% of my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 1 book behind schedule to meet my goal. :) You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books."
No comments:
Post a Comment