The Road to the Stars: A European Pilgrimage Book

Like his award-winning Wild Skies and Celtic Paths, Tom DaviesThe Road to the Stars is a travel book with a spiritual centre: a charming, fun, anecdotal journey through beautiful yet over-sanitised France into the dangerous bull-fighting territory of Spain. The ancient pilgrim route Davies takes, known as The Road, from Paris to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain still attracts an enormous number of pilgrims each year.Using his journalistic skills--and the sneaky trick of tempting weary travellers to stop for a chat and a cup of tea in his camper van-Davies teases a bizarre collection of these pilgrims into life. Wolfgang, undertaking his fifth pilgrimage along this route, soon forgets his missing wife as he teams up with two Dutch girls who love pilgrimages simply for the sex--"You need to keep warm somehow"--while Frans, a "bug-eyed romantic" policeman, grieves for a lost love and then sticks to a new love "like Velcro", all while walking The Road. Davies also captures the paradoxical complexity of a pilgrimage centre such as Lourdes, with its tacky merchandise and commercialism vying with the deep spiritual conviction and refreshment that it can give. Through all of the unorthodox people and events he encounters, Davies finds much time on his own to contemplate the majesty and complexity of God in the world. The chaos of the journey's end at the cathedral in Compostela and the subsequent revelation of what pilgrimage is really about, help make this a perfect travelogue for those of us who are keen armchair pilgrims. --Susannah SteelRead More