Fiction Books

Asensi, Matilde (2000) Iacobus. Booket. ISBN-13: 978-8408068570. (Available only in Spanish.) El caballero Galcerán recibe la encomienda papal de viajar a Francia para investigar unas muertes misteriosas, en compañía de un joven, llamado García. Pero pronto el camino se torcerá y terminarán recorriendo el Camino de Santiago en busca de un tesoro fabuloso...
Asensi, Matilde (2007) Peregrinatio / Perquisitore. Planeta. ISBN-13: 978-8408068556. (Available only in Spanish.) Un homenaje al Camino de Santiago Año de 1324. El ex caballero hospitalario Galcerán de Born, el Perquisitore, preocupado ante las noticias que recibe acerca de la conducta inapropiada de su hijo, Jonás, y de su disoluta vida en la corte de Barcelona, decide enviarle una misiva que contiene órdenes muy precisas para el joven y se convertirá en su Liber peregrinationis. Acompañado por un caballero de Cristo (antiguos templarios), Jonás de Born iniciará una nueva andadura en su vida.
Aviva, Elyn (2001) Dead End on the Camino: A Noa Webster Mystery. Pilgrims’ Process. ISBN-13: 978-0971060913. Murder, mayhem, and mystery accompany anthropologist Noa Webster on her treasure hunt on the Camino de Santiago.
Aviva, Elyn (2004) The Journey: A Novel of Pilgrimage and Spiritual Quest. Pilgrims' Process. ISBN-13: 978-0974959702.
Callery, Terence (2020) The First Pilgrim: On the Camino de Santiago. Independently published. Paperback ISBN-13: 979-8554771286. Kindle ASIN: B08M63XYBW. It was 814. They were long-shot underdogs and if they were to survive, they needed a miracle. The armies of Islam had swept like wildfire into the Iberian Peninsula. By the beginning of the 9th century, King Alfonso’s Kingdom of Asturias was one of a few enclaves of Christianity remaining in Españia. The First Pilgrim is a fictional account of the aspirations of a nation, the determination of its King and the faith of its people. It is also a medieval detective mystery.
Coelho, Paulo (2009) The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN-13: 978-0722534878. Considered by many the quintessential Camino story. An glorious mixture of adventure story and guide to self-knowledge, this book recounts the trials of Paulo and his mentor, Petrus, as they journey across Spain in search of a miraculous sword.
Colby, Dwain (2016) French Road. Independently published. Paperback ISBN-13 : 978-1696778602. Kindle ASIN : B07YQD2K36. Jerome Lionel Barbar was a Professor of Medieval History with a speciality of Spanish medieval history. While he had visited Santiago de Compostela several time during his long career, he had never actually made the pilgrimage. When he finally retired at age 70 he set out for the little French town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, just across a small river from Spain — the start of the Camino francés.The professor dies in Spain and his voluminous notes pass to a friend and colleague but it appears that a significant part of the final papers are missing. He is unable to get satisfaction from the Curia in Spain and he finally decides that he has to retrace the Professor’s steps and find out what happened to those notes.
Cowles, Ashlee (2016) Beneath Wandering Stars. Merit Press. ISBN-13: 978-1440595820. After her soldier brother is horribly wounded in Afghanistan, Gabriela must honor the vow she made: If anything ever happened to him, she would walk the Camino, making a pilgrimage in his name. The worst part is that the promise stipulates that she must travel with her brother's best friend -- whom she has despised all her life. Beneath Wandering Stars takes the reader on a journey of love, danger, laughter and friendship, against all odds.
 Curtsinger, E.C. (2005) Ten Thousand Ways to Santiago: A Pilgrimage Novel. Xlibris. Hardback ISBN-13: 978-1-4134-8334-5; paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-5992-6883-5. Paul Shaffer, an American loner in pilgrim costume and with a big pack on his back, camps in the snow one night crossing the Pyrenees and, mourning the death a year earlier of Angelique Roussel, he makes a snow statue of her. Two boys come by the next morning and rob Paul of everything but his toothbrush, leaving him naked in the Pyrenees.
Hall, Russell J. & Peg Rooney Hall (2013) Second Wind on the Way of Saint James: A Novel. Lighthall Books. Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0976426387; Kindle ASIN: B00ENNJZBA. Second Wind is a story of the beauty and power of the Camino, and its influence on the people who walk it. It is a tale of old friends and wildlife naturalists, Bert Charles and Helen Morgia, who are at the turning points in their lives when the successes and failures of career and marriage are mostly in the past and the “what next” question looms. They walk the Camino together, unsure of what, if anything, they are seeking. Will the Camino help them find their second wind?
Howell, Mary J. (2013) Murielle's Angel. Cinnamon Press. Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1907090837. Forty-eight year old Rosemary Wallace, for reasons that escape her, becomes an uncertain pilgrim - "I can't go on this way or that way or any way at all. I am just walking." What unfolds in Murielle's Angel, in prose that mirrors the pace of the walk, is a collection of stories that interweave as step after step is taken.- an angry young man, a tall blond stranger, an avuncular Spanish poet, a doctor accosted by a man in the village of Casanova who wants her to be his and wants a kiss ‘on account’ and the enigmatic Murielle, whose drawings invert perception.

Jantzen, Esther (2020) WALK: Jamie Bacon’s Secret Mission on the Camino de Santiago. JantzenBooks LLC. Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1733543910; Kindle ASIN: B08DYH4N5G. One of the very few Camino books written for children. A mystery and travel tale about the missteps, adventures and heroism of an American boy who walks the 500-mile pilgrimage with his home-schooling family. (For kids in grades 4-9 and their parents and grandparents.)
Meyer, John (2017) Shadows, Shells, and Spain. Summer Nomad Publications. ISBN-978-0987670397. Lost and listless on the island of Mallorca, Jamie Draper searches for his estranged wife, Pam, who has left him without any explanation or warning. Exploring her last known location, Jamie stumbles upon a letter from his missing wife promising full disclosure as to her departure and her current whereabouts. There's just one catch: her mysterious adventure is disclosed in a series of letters she's left hidden along the ancient Camino trail.
Morelock, Kathleen (2012) East to the Grotto on the River Gave. CreateSpace. ISBN-13: 978-1467949781; Kindle ASIN: B007KNSFRU. There is a time portal north of Santiago. Through this portal pass a 10th century Moor, a 19th century Irish nun, a 27th century environmental scientist and an 18th century sociopath. The disorder of time brings them all, and a few others, together to expose a murderer, to rescue a kidnapped child and to save the earth from a planet-destroying bomb. A rare religious, science fiction novel.
Newman, Sharan (1997) Strong as Death. Forge. ASIN: B007XV1SAK Kindle. Bella Rosa Books. ISBN-13: 978-1933523279 paperback. A former novitiate in the Order of the Paraclete, Catherine LeVendeur has had more than her share of adventures. When Catherine chose love over churchly devotion by falling in love with her Saxon nobleman, Edgar, her family as the earnest hope that married life would settle her down. After suffering several miscarriages and the birth of a stillborn child, Catherine is driven by a prophetic dream. She and Edgar embark on a pilgrimage to the fabled cathedral city of Compostela, to petition St. James for a child, to take the holy waters and to pray. The ensemble is rounded out with mad monks, some less-than-penitent crusaders and a motley collection of pilgrims.
Nilsen, Sylvia (2013) Pilgrim Footprints on the Sands of Time. EURL Pilgrimage Publications. ISBN-13: 978-2917183342. William Beaumont made a promise to his dead mother and younger sister to go on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint James to save their souls. He is overjoyed when he is asked to accompany the FitzUrse family on their three-month pilgrimage to Santiago. Set in the turbulent 12th-century, this is a story of love, adventure and danger on the pilgrimage roads from England to Spain.
Pick, Lucy (2014) Pilgrimage. Ciudono Press. ISBN-13: 978-0991121533. The last thing Gebirga of Flanders remembers seeing is the argument between her parents that ended in her mother’s death. In the years since, she has learned to negotiate her family’s castle of Gistel as a blind woman but everyone assumes that one day her home will be the convent founded in her mother’s honor. An accidental encounter offers another path, and Gebirga flees her callous family with a pack of pilgrims that includes a count’s daughter bound for marriage, two clerics writing a guidebook and a mysterious messenger with an unknown agenda, all headed along the pilgrimage road to Compostela.

Ravikant, Kamal (2017) Rebirth: A Fable of Love, Forgiveness, and Following Your Heart. Hachette Books. Hardcover ISBN-978-0316312288; Kindle ASIN-B01F1UD5OQ. After the death of his estranged father, Amit takes his parent's ashes to the Ganges to fulfill a deathbed promise. Instead of returning home, he wanders, his pain and grief leaving him confused about his future. Almost broke, unsure about his direction in life, and running from memories, he is led by fate to the Camino de Santiago. Once a reluctant pilgrim, Amit realizes he cannot stop until he completes the journey. With each step Amit is challenged to confront his fear of following in the footsteps of his father, the loss of a woman he may love after all, and the reality of an uncertain future.

Reilly, Bernard (2000) Journey to Compostela: A Novel of Medieval Pilgrimage and Peril. Combined Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-1580970426. On a pilgrimage through medieval Spain, a knight and a peasant play a cat-and-mouse game that grows deadlier with each passing day.
Reilly, Bernard (1997) Secret of Santiago: A Novel of Medieval Spain (Medieval Military Library). Da Capo Press. ISBN-13: 978-0938289609. Medieval historian Bernard Reilly uses the novel format to fill in the gaps in knowledge of Spain in the Dark Ages, in a visionary account of one man's faith at the time of the founding of the Shrine of Compostela.
Saunders, Tracy (2007) Pilgrimage to Heresy. iUniverse, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0595469123. A Spanish gnostic bishop argues for his life in the year 385. A modern day pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago searches for keys to her existence. And an ancient text binds them together. A tale of intrigue which asks disturbing questions about the nature of faith and pilgrimage.
Saunders, Tracy (2012) St. James' Rooster. iUniverse, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-1475927627. Set in Santiago de Compostela, part present day fiction intertwined with much historical fact, St James' Rooster takes the reader to the turbulent times of the Middle Ages and the beginnings of the cult of St James. Diego Gelmirez, Bishop and then Archbishop, follows his driving ambitions to make Compostela into another Rome. In so-doing he challenges a queen and rivals a Pope, even as it puts his own life in the gravest danger.
Skvirski, Elena (2020) Camino Mysteries. Adventure Camino, LLC. Paperback ISBN-13:978-1641842761, Kindle ASIN: B0859MXT7T. Join Stella, a precocious seven-year old, as she departs with her brothers and her friend on a quest to Santiago. Travel along as mysterious messages guide them during their spiritual adventure toward the convergence of the earthly and celestial realms on the Camino.  Passing through mystical space and time, they are transported into magical settings, time-traveling to the Middle Ages.
Temple, Frances (Hardback 1994, paperback 1995) The Ramsay Scallop. Orchard Books. Hardback ISBN-10: 0531068366; paperback ISBN-10: 0064406016. Author Temple travels back to 13th-century Europe for a coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old orphan, Eleanor of Ramsay. The town priest sends her and her betrothed on a pilgrimage to Spain to atone for the sins of all the townspeople. Young adult.
Torbado, Jesús (2002) El peregrino. Planeta Publishing Corp. ISBN-13: 978-8408044895. (Available only in Spanish.)
Welburn, Ruth (2013) Bedbug's Big Adventure. Bedbug is a happy friendly little guy who lives in a dormitory in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. He has never seen the world; he has never been out of his mattress. He wonders why the pilgrims are so excited. He wonders where they go and what they see. He would like to go on an adventure, so he hitches a ride on Pilgrim's bedroll and travels along the Way of Saint James with her. Available through www.bedbugsbigadventure.com.
Wiegman, Neal (2009) Walking the Way: A Medieval Quest. WingSpan Press. ISBN 978-1-59594-325-5. The author's trek along the 500-mile pilgrimage across the Way of Saint James inspired this historical novel about what the journey must have been like during its medieval heyday. Two thorns from Jesus' Crown of Thorns have been stolen from a monastery in the Pyrenees. The quest for these holy relics sends an 18-year-old Basque named Xavier on an odyssey over the length of the Camino. Xavier shares his adventures with two Italian priests, characters based on actual historical figures. One of them published a memoir and the most vivid passages are quoted in the novel, as are sections of the Liber Sancti Jacobi, the earliest pilgrim guidebook. Walking the Way with Xavier will provide a foundation for understanding the pilgrimage road to Santiago in the 21st century.
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Rev 03/24/20