In the spring of 1999, Kathryn Harrison set out to walk the centuries-old pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. ''Not a vacation,'' she calls it, ''but a time out of time.'' With a heavy pack, no hotel reservations, and little Spanish, she wanted an experience that would be both physically and psychically demanding. Throughout this deeply personal and revealing memoir of her journey, first made alone and later in the company of her daughter, Harrison blends striking images of the route and her fellow pilgrims with reflections on the redemptive power of pilgrimages, mortality, family, the nature of endurance, the past and future, the mystery of friendship.

• 192 pages
• 5 5/8'' x 8 1/4''
• Softcover
• © 2003