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A Pilgrimage to Eternity
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  • Published: 16 June 2020
  • ISBN: 9780735225251
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $45.00

A Pilgrimage to Eternity

From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith

Formats & editions
EBook
15 Oct 2019
Audiobook
15 Oct 2019
Paperback
16 June 2020
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Tracing an ancient pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome, the bestselling and "virtuosic" (The Wall Street Journal) writer explores the past and future of Christianity

Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity, exploring one of the biggest stories of our time: the collapse of religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and makes his way overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy.

Making his way through a landscape laced with some of the most important shrines to the faith, Egan finds a modern Canterbury Tale in the chapel where Queen Bertha introduced Christianity to pagan Britain; parses the supernatural in a French town built on miracles; and journeys to the oldest abbey in the Western world, founded in 515 and home to continuous prayer over the 1,500 years that have followed.

A thrilling journey, a family story, and a revealing history, A Pilgrimage to Eternity looks for our future in its search for God.
  • Published: 16 June 2020
  • ISBN: 9780735225251
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $45.00
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About the author

Timothy Egan

Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author of eight books, most recently The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for nonfiction and was named a New York Times Editors' Choice, a New York Times Notable Book, a Washington State Book Award winner, and a Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book. He writes a weekly opinion column for The New York Times.
portrait photo of Timothy Egan

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Praise for A Pilgrimage to Eternity

Praise for A Pilgrimage to Eternity

"What a wondrous work! Somehow Egan has pulled together what seems like the entire history of Christianity, the scenes and succulents of much of Europe and his own personal story into an engrossing narrative. This beautifully written and totally clear-eyed account of his pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome will have you wondering whether we should all embark on such a journey, either of the body, the soul or, as in Egan's case, both." --Cokie Roberts

"A Pilgrimage to Eternity is one of Egan's best books, a moving combination of history and memoir, travelogue and soul-searching, buoyed by Egan's strengths as a writer: color and humor, a sense of wonder and a gift for getting to the point." --Seattle Times