Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela ($11.36 paperback), by Conrad Rudolph, is this month's free book from The University of Chicago Press (no Kindle edition).Book DescriptionSign up for the free book from the University of Chicago. You'll need to enter your email address, then check your email for the link to download the book. Mine arrived within seconds -- you get a .ACSM file, which, when opened, will load the PDF book inside of Adobe ADE. This is a DRM'd PDF and is not compatible with the Kindle.
Traveling two and a half months and one thousand miles along the ancient route through southern France and northern Spain, Conrad Rudolph made the passage to the holy site of Santiago de Compostela, one of the most important modern-day pilgrimage destinations for Westerners. In this chronicle of his travels to this captivating place, Rudolph melds the ancient and the contemporary, the spiritual and the physical, in a book that is at once travel guide, literary work, historical study, and memoir.
Spring is the season for a pilgrimage, observed Chaucer. Rudolph traces the famous Camino de Santiago—the Way of St. James—a pilgrimage route from La Puy in France, through the Pyrenees, to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. It’s a route followed by millions from medieval times to the present (and was also followed by Martin Sheen in the 2010 film, The Way.) Rudolph’s book is at once travel guide, literary work, historical study, and memoir.
