Sent to me by Genie Shields with a note that ‘this is right up your alley’, I totally enjoyed this ‘off beat’ novel.  Joyce’s first novel creates a totally credible and detailed world into which I was more than happy to fall.  Fry is a 65 year old, depressed, retired brewery worker who has made a complete mess of his life up until the day he receives a letter from Queenie informing him that she is in hospice and dying.  He hasn’t seen Queenie, a former fellow employee, for 20 years and their story along with Fry’s story of his marriage to Maureen and the tale of his son David emerge over the course of the narrative of his walk from the far southwest corner of England to the far northeast corner.  Over 87 days, Fry meets strangers who open their secrets to him.  During this process, he becomes more self-aware, accepting, loving, feeling, and he ultimately re-emerges from the 20 year cocoon in which he’d been not-living.  A wonderful parable about the human condition and our need for connection as well as weird and wonderful quests.