‘A delightful tale of renewal and shedding unnecessary burdens…This is sure to be loved by fans of The Rosie Project and it’s enough to put the Camino at the top of your travel wishlist.’
— Herald Sun
‘A beautifully crafted tale of love, self-acceptance and blisters.’
— Sunday Express
‘Simsion and Australian psychiatrist Buist have written an insightful study of loss, grief, and the possibility of romance after.’
— Library Journal
‘Charming and absorbing’
— Daily Mail
‘A novel of mature love and self-discovery set against the scenic backdrop of the pilgrims’ walk.’
— Age
‘There’s so much to love about this novel, which is smart and funny and full of the awkwardness and adrenaline of adventure and new romance.’
— Whimn
‘Compelling reading…[A] cast of entertaining and eccentric characters…The book’s momentum never flags….’
— Sydney Morning Herald
‘Difficult to put down until the very end.’
— Big Issue
‘Simsion and Buist are Camino veterans who add detail and authority to their novel.’
— Adelaide Advertiser
‘Charming, uplifting’
— The People
‘…an authentic and diverting read that will make you want to put on your walking boots and book a one-way ticket to southern France.’
— Press Association
‘Personal, real, and inviting…With wit and wisdom, Simsion and Buist have crafted a novel that will have readers wanting to walk a Camino of their own.’
— Kirkus Reviews
Each looking to make a new start, Zoe and Martin set out independently to walk two thousand kilometres from Cluny in France to Santiago in 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 will these two very different people find each other?
‘Two Steps Forward was my first full collaborative effort with Anne (Buist), though we’d always worked together on the plans and edits of our individual books. It was a lot of fun to write – a bit like going through photo albums as we revisited our Camino walks, though fact and fiction have now become blurred in our minds.
We originally wrote Two Steps Forward as two separate books – one from Zoe’s point of view, and one from Martin’s. We had this idea that a couple would buy them as a set and contrast the two takes. Our early readers ended up passing the books back and forth and told us we should combine them into one. That involved a cut and paste – and then some very severe cutting!
You dream of changing people’s lives through the power of your words. In this case it’s been a two-step (sorry) process: people read the books and are inspired to walk a Camino. And that changes their life.’
—GCS
‘Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist’s titles Two Steps Forward and Two Steps Onward, in companion, offer a highly moving and rewarding reading experience. May require tissues.’
— Booklover Book Reviews
‘An escapist, gently witty read that’ll appeal to armchair travellers counting down until international travel—to Europe and elsewhere—opens up again.’
— West Australian
‘No aspect of living and how to live is passed over, as well as details of wine varieties you are unlikely to find in any other work of fiction.’
— ArtsHub
‘A much more intimate navigation of romantic love, friendly and familial, with a smaller coterie of characters but just as much heart.’
— New Daily
Three years after life got in the way of their long-distance relationship, Californian artist 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, along the mountainous paths from rural France.
And rather than each setting off solo, they will accompany Zoe’s old friend Camille—who, despite her life-threatening 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…
Two Steps Onward is the wise, witty and wine-filled follow-up to Two Steps Forward, Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist’s bestselling novel about walking the Camino. It’s about helping the people you love, and knowing when to let go. Figuring out what you really want in life. And seizing your chances, before it’s too late.
We got enough positive feedback from Two Steps Forward—and sales in eleven languages—to write Two Steps Onward as a natural extension.
There are two long-distance walking tracks that run through Cluny in southern Burgundy: the first is a feeder route for the famous Camino de Santiago; the second is the lesser known Chemin d’Assise, which runs from Vezelay in France to Assisi in Spain. So we walked that for research. And because Rome made more sense as a destination for the novel, we picked up the Via Francigena (Canterbury to Rome) and continued on. An honest 1600 kilometres (1000 miles). We arrived in Rome just as Covid was hitting Italy…
—GCS
