The Way of the Wild Goose: Three Pilgrimages Following Geese, Stars, and Hunches on the Camino de Santiago

This thorough if sometimes labored travelogue by anthropologist Bahrami (Moon Camino de Santiago) investigates the religious symbolism of the goose while traveling along the Camino de Santiago pilgrim trail. In Spain, she discovers a board for the Game of the Goose (a European children’s board game similar to snakes and ladders) inlaid in stone—a metaphorical representation of the pilgrim’s journey on the Camino. Noting that squares depicting geese are lucky and allow players to advance more quickly, Bahrami sets out to learn how the goose became connected to the game and pilgrimage. She details, perhaps too thoroughly, her travels along the locales represented in the game, looking for signs of the goose and noting the history of the religious sites she visits. Bahrami traces the goose symbolism back to European pagan goddesses and uncovers echoes of the three-pronged goose’s footprint in symbols of the Holy Trinity, finding that the goose “brings with it contentment, harmony, wholeness, and balance.” Bahrami’s animated prose pulls the reader into her ambitious quest, but superfluous detail sometimes makes it slow going. Though overlong, this has its charms. Agent: Laura Strachan, Strachan Literary Agency. (May)