Book Review: Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist (as an audiobook)

Two Steps Forward
by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist (Compact Disc Simsion)

I’ve been a fan of Graeme Simsion’s writing every since reading his The Rosie Project a few years ago. He writes in several different styles, and each features engagingly quirky characters and plots.

In Two Steps Forward, Simsion has co-authored a funny, emotional story with his wife, Anne Buist. It is told in alternating chapters by two different narrative protagonists — and in the audiobook adaptation, there are two different narrators, one male and one female. Martin is an engineer from England, ending a teaching job in southern France. He’s still recovering from a bitter divorce and has a complicated relationship with his teenaged daughter. Zoe is an American, recently widowed, who has escape her life in the U.S. to visit a friend in France. Both of them separately make the decision to walk the Camino de Santiago (a.k.a. The Chemin), the centuries-old pilgrim path that starts in France and ends in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. After encountering each other negatively before their separate walks began, each begins their journey of self-discovery and physical endurance. Partway into their 6-week, they run across each other, eventually discover that they each had misassumptions about the other, and join with other “pilgrims” on various stretches of their walks.

Martin and Zoe are both compelling characters, with interesting story arcs. Simsion and Buist people the novel with an intriguing cast of supporting characters, and as both of the main characters describe the details of their Chemin walk, it comes alive for the reader. By the end of the novel, and its emotional roller-coaster of events, I found myself caring immensely for the characters and didn’t want to see their story end!

I especially highly recommend the audiobook, with its two different narrative voices — really gave the story depth.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, or The Best of Adam Sharpe, all also by Graeme Simsion — I recommend all of these as audiobook adaptations!]

[ official Book Trailer for Two Steps Forward on YouTube ] | [ official Graeme Simsion web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library – Public Service

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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