222 mm x 146 mm, 160 pages RRP: R110, ISBN 978-1-4152-0039-1 Publication date: August 2007, Category: Fiction Description Algeria’s Way by newcomer Alex Smith is set against the background of the famous El Camino Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage in Spain, which attracts thousand of pilgrims annually. Everyone has an affair on the Camino, the saying goes, be it with a fellow pilgrim or with oneself. A kind of modern-day South African Canterbury Tales, Algeria’s Way concerns the stories of a group of pilgrims from South Africa and of the main character, Algeria. Thin, troubled, haunted by memories and fleeing from what she feels is her fatal attraction for other people, Algeria stumbles over the rocky soil of Spain as she listens to the stories of her fellow pilgrims. Along the way she meets the dashing, womanising Miguel, who returns to the Camino every year in his romantic vision of love. Algeria’s Way explores the extremes of love but it is not romantic fiction. A journey of the mind as much as through the landscape, this is the story of a young woman’s ironic discovery of an unconventional peace. From Algeria’s Way, page 134 Santiago, the end of the pilgrimage, is two nights, forty-five kilometres and, in terms of my gait, some ninety thousand steps away. In a solitary confinement of thought, I stride ahead, a dozen kilogrammes heavier, to Arca de Pino, that night’s stop. I have taken on some of Diana’s load: three bricks taped up and covered in blue plastic.They are books – that much I can tell you and no more. After five hours of walking in the heat, and trying to keep Richard out of my thoughts, the beacons counting down the distance to Santiago indicate that there are only seventeen kilometres to go. I have missed the turn-off to Arca, I realise, passing a compost heap where the air smells of decomposing brown-skinned onion bulbs and hot nettles.The wise thing to do would be to turn back, but I want to get away from the group. To read on This is a travel book with a difference. Matthew le Cordeur, Witness Surprises at every turn ... Smith's style is effortless, magical and beautiful to read – reminiscent of Paulo Coelho's writing. Phil Murray, Cape Times Promises to be like nothing else you've read ... gives the reader the slightest glimpse of a reality unlike their own and shows them a way of falling in love with life again. Natalie Bosman, Citizen E-mail us a comment on this book. (Comments may be edited and used on this website.) To buy this book www.exclusivebooks.com www.kalahari.net home   writers   books   contact   buy   rights all content © Umuzi, Random House Struik this website designed and maintained by Guanaco.co.za