Two Steps Forward: A Novel

Walking is getting its share of literary exercise. From Cheryl Strayed’s end-of-her rope trek across the Pacific Crest Trail in her memoir Wild to Rachel Joyce’s redemptive story of a retiree who walked across England in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a good, long walk offers a slow-paced road-trip arc that facilitates introspection, physical challenge, and healing.

In their novel Two Steps Forward, authors Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist jump onto the walking trail with the story of two middle-aged Americans who meet on Spain’s Camino de Santiago pilgrim path while processing painful changes in their lives. He is newly divorced, and she is recently widowed, and as they mingle and part over the course of months, their separate emotional journeys deepen while they develop a genuinely caring and intimate connection with each other and fellow walkers.

Two Steps Forward is a story of love, but it is not a romance. The up-hill path each character treks is toward their own recovery and clarity as they gain the insights they need to return to and thrive in their respective lives. Misunderstandings cheapen the story at times, but the portrait of human frailty, honesty, and resilience more than compensates.