First published 2023
Andrew McCarthy watches his eldest son Sam take his first steps toward independence and feels time slipping away. The New York Times bestselling author and actor decides they need to walk the Camino de Santiago together before Sam leaves home for good. McCarthy had made this transformative journey across Spain decades earlier. Now he wants to forge a deeper bond with his son across 500 miles of challenging terrain. Father and son traverse the unforgiving Spanish landscape for five weeks. They have more honest conversations during this trek than in the previous twenty years combined. They discuss McCarthy's divorce, Sam's struggles at school, and the author's troubled relationship with his own father. Fame enters their talks, as do Flaming Hot Cheetos. These raw discussions threaten to damage their relationship or strengthen it forever. McCarthy chronicles this candid expedition as two family members walk across a country and toward each other.
Genres: family-life, adventure, contemporary, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, personal-journey
Setting: Camino de Santiago, Spain
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
256 pages · Hardcover · Grand Central Publishing