Letters from the Way

Barbara Anderson, a dedicated walker, decided on a six-hundred-mile journey along a pilgrims’ trail from France to a sacred location in Spain. She claims that her book Letters from the Way is not a travelogue but for most readers it reads like one. With good writing and enjoyable descriptions Anderson gives us a glimpse of what is it to be among the hundreds of pilgrims undertaking this journey (and on many others along different pilgrim trails in France and Spain). Starting with a solid historic account for the reasons of pilgrimages and her prologue describing her own reasons and beginnings, she writes thirteen letters in as many chapters to fifty friends and family members during the period May 13 through July 8, 2013, giving them an account of her journey. She travels light yet she carries her faithful and useful iPad. She illustrates her letters with many photos, mostly without captions, unfortunately. These are simple snapshots, some in poor focus, yet they give us some idea of her journey. The book ends with plenty of philosophy, mostly about God and its existence; she asked this question from her fifty friends and eighteen of the answers are reproduced.