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The Forgotten Smile
The Forgotten Smile
Dec 4, 2025 11:01 PM

Author:Margaret Kennedy

The Forgotten Smile

Kate is bored of being overlooked by her grown-up children and decides to escape on an Aegean cruise. She ends up in Keritha – a mysterious Greek island all but forgotten by the modern world. There she encounters her childhood friends, the Challoners, returned to the island of their birth to claim their heritage. When another stray arrives: the unattractive, foolish Selwyn Potter, Kate is irritated. But under the spell of this strange and beautiful island both visitors find themselves, and each other, cast in a new light.

Reviews

An imaginative tale, symbolic and haunting and yet at times wryly humorous

—— Kirkus Reviews

Margaret Kennedy caught just the taste of the time, mixing a stolid domestic Englishness with 'Continental' bohemians

—— Irish Times

She is not only a romantic but an anarchist, and she knows the ways of men and women very well indeed

—— Anita Brookner

Kennedy was immensely popular in her heyday

—— Washington Post

A beautiful story which will grip you, make you laugh and cry, uplift your spirit and leave you feeling profoundly grateful and changed by the reading experience ... This is a wonderful book about loss, redemption and joy – and I give it my own prize.

—— Bel Mooney , The Daily Mail

A delightful read. ... Joyful moments and gentle comedy.. an uplifting and moving companion to Harold Fry

—— Kat Berry , Daily Express

Since finishing the two books, I often found myself wistfully wishing for another glimpse into Harold and Queenie’s world.

—— Jamie Klingler , Stylist

A beautiful book ... both desperately sad and sweetly uplifting - even funny... I really did love it.

—— Lucy Reber , Stylist

Joyce's poignant tale of Harold and Queenie will stay with us for a long time to come.

—— Stylist

If you loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry you'll be thrilled with this sequel.

—— Fabulous magazine

A hot read

—— Good Housekeeping

a lesson in gentle restraint

—— Sunday Times

Must read: a funny emotional story

—— marie claire

Good though The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is, this is better ....with an even more engaging central character, it will be a hard-hearted reader who can finish it without tears.

—— John Harding , Daily Mail

An extraordinarily touching portrait - all dangers of sentimentality are banished by a final twist that makes you realise that what you've been reading is even sadder, and far tougher, than it seemed.

—— Readers Digest

The author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry hits a darker but no less compelling note ... However, the book is not without its own pleasurable uplift: a spiritual wind beneath its wings … perhaps it adds necessary ballast to the sparkling balloon of Harold's journey – and it will certainly find a grateful readership.

—— The Guardian

[With] gently comic moments and [the] pitch-perfect black humour that Joyce writes so well ... It is not necessary to read Harold’s story before reading Queenie’s to enjoy this bittersweet novel which is a pleasure in its own right. However, reading both will only serve to double that pleasure.

—— The Independent

This tender, funny tragic novel guides you to a point of emotion rarely found in modern fiction and the wonderful ending is truly uplifting.

—— Bel Mooney , Daily Mail

Joyce accomplishes the rare feat of endowing her continuing narrative with as much pathos and warmth, wisdom and poignancy as her debut. Harold was beloved by millions; Queenie will be, too.

—— Booklist

A fantastic book about an extraordinary life.

—— Holzwickeder Nachrichten, Germany

Once again Rachel Joyce writes so gripping and moving that you take the charaters to your heart immediately.

—— Buch aktuell, Germany

With an enchanting, poetic language Rachel Joyce writes about the fundamental questions of life and death.

—— 52buecher, Germany

Like Harold Fry, Queenie is delightful and dark. Death, duty and regret shadow nearly every page, but the darkness is not unrelenting; there is humor, and there is light.

—— Minneapolis Star Tribune

This lovely book is full of joy. Much more than the story of a woman’s enduring love for an ordinary, flawed man, it’s an ode to messy, imperfect, glorious, unsung humanity ... Her love song is for us. Thank you, Rachel Joyce.

—— Washington Post

[A] deeply affecting novel…Culminating in a shattering revelation, her tale is funny, sad, hopeful: She’s bound for death, but full of life.

—— People Magazine

A moving, lyrical read about life, love and saying goodbye. this is a companion story to the similarly entrancing The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but could be read alone.

—— Cathy Rentzenbrink , Prima
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