Two Steps

Zoe, a sometime artist, is from California. Martin, an engineer, is from Yorkshire. Both have ended up in picturesque Cluny, in central France. Both are struggling to come to terms with their recent past-for Zoe, the death of her husband; for Martin, a messy divorce. Looking to make a new start, each sets out alone to walk two thousand kilometres from Cluny to Santiago, in northwestern Spain, in the footsteps of pilgrims who have walked the Camino-the Way-for centuries. The Camino changes you, it's said. It's a chance to find a new version of yourself. But can these two very different people find each other? In this smart, funny and romantic journey, Martin's and Zoe's stories are told in alternating chapters by husband-and-wife team Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist. Two Steps Forward is a novel about renewal-physical, psychological and spiritual. It's about the challenge of walking a long distance and of working out where you are going. And it's about what you decide to keep, what you choose to leave behind and what you rediscover.

Zoe, a some-time artist from California, has recently lost her husband. Martin, an engineer from Yorkshire, is alone after a messy divorce. Both have ended up in Cluny, central France, on a separate journey to walk the Camino; two thousand kilometres to Santiago, in north-western Spain. The Camino changes you, it's said. It's a chance to find a new version of yourself. But can these two very different people find each other?

The wise, witty and wine-filled follow-up to Two Steps Forward, Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist's bestselling novel about walking the Camino. Three years after life got in the way of their long-distance relationship, Californian illustrator Zoe and English engineer Martin have an unexpected opportunity to reunite: a second chance to follow in the footsteps of pilgrims in Europe. This time, they won't be walking the famous Camino de Santiago to north-west Spain but the less-travelled Chemin d'Assise and Via Francigena to Rome, the mountainous path down from rural France. And rather than each setting off solo, they will accompany Zoe's old friend Camille-who, despite her terminal illness, insists she will walk the whole sixteen hundred kilometres to seek an audience with the Pope-and her not-so-ex-husband, Gilbert, who sees the trip as a gourmet tour. Then Bernhard, Martin's young nemesis from the previous trek, shows up, along with Martin's daughter, Sarah, who is having a quarter-life crisis and doesn't exactly hit it off with Zoe… This is a novel about helping the people you love, and knowing when to let go. About figuring out what you really want in life. And seizing your chances, before it's too late. "A novel of mature love and self-discovery set against the scenic backdrop of the pilgrims' walk." AGE on Two Steps Forward "{An} entertaining and refreshingly unpredictable romance." SYNDEY MORNING HERALD on Two Steps Forward "Charming and absorbing." DAILY MAIL on Two Steps Forward