Call of the Camino by Suzanne Redfearn
Call of the Camino by Suzanne Redfearn is a moving dual timeline novel about grief, courage, and the unexpected ways one journey can connect two lives across generations. Seventeen years after losing her father, Reina Watkins is still carrying questions and emotions that have shaped both her personal life and her developing journalism career.
When an unexpected opportunity sends her to Spain’s legendary Camino de Santiago, she discovers that the pilgrimage holds a deeply personal connection: her father walked the same ancient trail at her age. Far from being simply a physical journey, the Camino becomes a chance for Reina to reconsider her past and imagine what might come next. Her story is interwoven with that of Isabelle Vidal, a teenager in 1997 who runs away from boarding school and turns to the Camino in search of freedom and a different future. As Isabelle encounters new possibilities and Reina retraces a path connected to her father, the two journeys gradually begin to echo one another. Redfearn captures the atmosphere of the Camino beautifully, from long stretches of walking and quiet reflection to unexpected kindness from strangers and the changing Spanish landscape.
The alternating perspectives create both suspense and emotional depth, while the characters’ struggles make the pilgrimage feel intimate and authentic. At its heart, this is a hopeful story about finding direction when life feels uncertain and discovering that sometimes the road forward begins with understanding where you came from.
When an unexpected opportunity sends her to Spain’s legendary Camino de Santiago, she discovers that the pilgrimage holds a deeply personal connection: her father walked the same ancient trail at her age. Far from being simply a physical journey, the Camino becomes a chance for Reina to reconsider her past and imagine what might come next. Her story is interwoven with that of Isabelle Vidal, a teenager in 1997 who runs away from boarding school and turns to the Camino in search of freedom and a different future. As Isabelle encounters new possibilities and Reina retraces a path connected to her father, the two journeys gradually begin to echo one another. Redfearn captures the atmosphere of the Camino beautifully, from long stretches of walking and quiet reflection to unexpected kindness from strangers and the changing Spanish landscape.
The alternating perspectives create both suspense and emotional depth, while the characters’ struggles make the pilgrimage feel intimate and authentic. At its heart, this is a hopeful story about finding direction when life feels uncertain and discovering that sometimes the road forward begins with understanding where you came from.
Strengths of the Book
Weaknesses of the Book
Key Ideas From the Book
Who Should Read This Book?
- Atmospheric setting - The Camino de Santiago feels vivid, immersive, and beautifully observed.
- Emotional depth - Grief, hope, identity, and healing are handled with warmth.
- Dual timeline - Reina and Isabelle’s stories create an engaging sense of connection.
- Memorable characters - Both women feel vulnerable, determined, and easy to care about.
- Authentic journey - The physical pilgrimage mirrors the characters’ emotional growth.
Weaknesses of the Book
- The story has a reflective pace rather than constant action.
- Readers may connect more strongly with one timeline than the other.
- Some revelations are deliberately gradual.
- The emotional focus may feel heavier than expected for readers seeking a light travel novel.
Key Ideas From the Book
- A journey can change us even when we begin it without knowing exactly what we need.
- Grief can shape our lives without having to determine our future.
- Understanding the past can make it easier to move forward.
- Sometimes escaping from something becomes the first step toward finding yourself.
- Strangers can offer unexpected kindness at exactly the right moment.
- Physical challenges can create space for emotional reflection.
- Two very different lives can become connected in surprising ways.
- Finding your direction is often less about having answers and more about continuing to walk.
Who Should Read This Book?
- Readers interested in Camino de Santiago and pilgrimage stories.
- Fans of emotional contemporary fiction about grief, healing, and second chances.
- Anyone who enjoys dual timeline novels with interconnected characters.
- Readers who love atmospheric travel fiction set against beautiful landscapes.
- Fans of stories about family, identity, personal growth, and hope.
Home › Fiction Books › Journey & Self Discovery › Call of the Camino
Updated September 27, 2026
Reina Watkins was eight when her father died. Seventeen years later, a turn in her journalism career sends her onto the Camino de Santiago, following the route he once walked across Spain. Twenty seven years earlier, teenage Isabelle Vidal flees her boarding school and heads toward the same path with danger behind her and no reliable plan ahead.
Updated September 27, 2026
Reina Watkins was eight when her father died. Seventeen years later, a turn in her journalism career sends her onto the Camino de Santiago, following the route he once walked across Spain. Twenty seven years earlier, teenage Isabelle Vidal flees her boarding school and heads toward the same path with danger behind her and no reliable plan ahead.
The one minute decision
Choose Call of the Camino if you want women’s fiction built around grief, escape, friendship and the slow disclosure of how two lives connect. The pilgrimage is not just scenic movement between plot points: each woman brings a different question to the road, and the dual timeline lets the same landscape hold both memory and possibility.
It may be less suitable if you want a practical Camino travel manual, a single linear narrator or an action plot that never pauses for reflection. This is a novel about emotional and historical connections, not route planning.
It may be less suitable if you want a practical Camino travel manual, a single linear narrator or an action plot that never pauses for reflection. This is a novel about emotional and historical connections, not route planning.
Why two timelines belong on the same trail
Reina walks to understand a past she inherited. Isabelle walks because her immediate future is unsafe. That difference gives the parallel structure its tension: one journey is an act of return, the other an urgent departure. The gap between them invites the reader to notice which stories survive, which are hidden, and how a place can carry meaning long after the original traveller has gone.
The setting also has an authorial connection rather than being chosen at random. Suzanne Redfearn says the story was inspired in part by her own Camino and the people she met there. That supports the novel’s attention to encounters along the route without turning the fiction into memoir.
The setting also has an authorial connection rather than being chosen at random. Suzanne Redfearn says the story was inspired in part by her own Camino and the people she met there. That supports the novel’s attention to encounters along the route without turning the fiction into memoir.
Book club questions
- What can Reina learn by repeating her father’s route that documents or family stories could not show her?
- How does the Camino mean something different to a person moving toward answers and a person escaping danger?
- When does a journey become a way of changing the past rather than merely revisiting it?
- Which connections between strangers feel accidental, and which feel created by the structure of pilgrimage itself?
Read next for three kinds of journey
- Road Trip - for estranged sisters, an inherited mystery and a journey to Ireland with more comic family friction.
- Ways to Find Yourself - for another self discovery angle with less emphasis on historical dual timelines.
- The Restoration Garden - for a quieter story in which rebuilding place and rebuilding a life develop together.
