Book #25: Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion & Anne Buist
Number of pages: 356
I was excited to read this collaboration betwene Graeme Simsion and his wife Anne Buist, who has written a series of psychological thrillers about the character Natalie King, which I am keen to try.
I was lucky enough to attend a book signing and Q&A session with them recently, and they explained about how Anne had written the chapters about Zoe, the main female character, while Graeme wrote the chapters about Martin, the male character.
The book starts with Zoe and Martin both setting off on the Camino trail, which stretches hundreds of miles across France and Spain; the book alternates between each character's point of view, and they start off separately, but cross each others' paths on a regular basis. Zoe, an American, is trying to cope with the recent death of her husband, while Martin, an Englishman, is recently divorced. Martin has also chosen to pull a cart along with him for the entire trail, and towards the end, it becomes evident why the writers decided to include this.
For a lot of the story, the interaction between the two characters felt like a typical "will-they-or-won't-they?" romance, and the book felt like a light-hearted, humourous narrative to begin with. However, as things progressed, the story started to feel more serious and the tone became darker, both because of the truth beind the death of Zoe's husband that was gradually revealed in her internal monologue, and also because of events taking place back in England involving Martin's troubled daughter.
I loved this book overall, it felt like a book about self-discovery and moving on from difficult events. I wasn't sure how the book would end, but the writers that felt like something that felt refreshing, and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions as to what happened next.
Next book: Golden Hill (Francis Spufford)