The Camino
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Aug 25, 2026
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From the Netherlands’s most popular crime writer, a literary thriller following a woman who walks the Camino de Santiago, searching for answers about her husband’s death.
Forty-four-year-old chocolatier Lotte Bonnet has been living happily in South Limburg for years with her husband Emil, a former refugee from Bosnia. But when Emil unexpectedly dies by suicide while walking the Camino de Santiago, or Way of Saint James, Lotte is devastated.
Shocked and confused, Lotte resolves to follow Emil’s exact path on the Camino one year later, hoping for answers, or at least insights into what could have compelled him to take his own life. While walking the arduous trail through central France, passing idyllic villages and meeting fellow pilgrims, Lotte’s thoughts are also elsewhere, in Sarajevo, as she learns the terrors of a war and shocking secrets about her husband’s identity.
Inspired by the natural beauty that surrounds her, forming new friendships, and possibly a romantic connection on the Camino, Lotte is distracted as the trail grows more treacherous, and as it becomes clear someone is following her, someone who does not want her to know the truth.
Fans of Louise Penny’s Inspector Armand Gamache will be delighted by Lotte’s easy charm and enthralled by the revelations on her journey. Anya Niewierra’s blockbuster mystery The Camino has taken Europe by storm and is finally available in English for the first time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Dutch chocolatier reckons with the death of her husband in the engrossing English-language debut from Niewierra. Lotte Bonnet knew there was darkness in her husband's past involving his escape from Bosnia two decades ago, but she's blindsided by news that, during his solo pilgrimage along the French leg of the Camino de Santiago to celebrate surviving stomach cancer, he has died by suicide. Further shocks await, starting with Lotte's discovery that her husband was living under the identity of someone killed in a 1990s massacre by a Bosnian Serb militia. Feeling the foundation of her life crumble, Lotte resolves to retrace the 10-day trek taken by the man she knew as Emil Jukić in hopes of better understanding why he killed himself—if, indeed, he did. Initially, Lotte is swept away by the stunning vistas, welcoming fellow pilgrims, and peace of mind she finds on the trek. But when a series of freakish "accidents" befall those around her, she suspects that whatever led to her husband's death could come for her, too. Though the twist-filled plot eventually strains credulity, Niewierra's heady blend of suspense and a soupçon of romance should win her plenty of fans this side of the Atlantic. It's an enjoyable ride.
