PILGRIMAGE TO NOWHERE
Facing a middle-aged funk, Andrew Boyd, author of the underground spiritual classic, Daily Afflictions, sets off around the world, spoiling for a run-in with the Divine. But his quest across the heartlands of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity runs smack into the modern pilgrim’s dilemma: How can you lose yourself—never mind find yourself—when everywhere is fast becoming a version of anywhere, and the sacred is often just a quaint performance put on by locals.
As West meets East, and his irreverent attitude runs up against the rules of monastic life, he’s forced into a hilarious series of twists and turns before hitting spiritual pay-dirt.
Whether he’s prostrate before a Canadian punk rocker turned Buddhist monk, channeling Bladerunner on the banks of the Ganges, or seized by visions of an anatomically incorrect Jesus in Sainte Chapelle, his misadventures are not only a revealing meditation into the art of spiritual seeking in the age of Lonely Planet, but a maverick manifesto for “skeptical mystics” of any faith or feather.
Liz Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) kindly read the manuscript and had this to say:
“I like the way this guy searches. Adrift but not lost, investigating the world with passion and skepticism, really rolling around in it all, looking for truths with the clearest of eyes and a sometimes broken heart. Also, he’s funny. This is a really good, really smart book about the world and one person’s place within it. No easy answers here. No shortcuts. Often, no faith at all. But wonder permeates every page. Wonder and stubbornness. And what else is a spiritual search, except the culmination of wonder and stubbornness?” —Liz Gilbert
The manuscript is done, and I’m now looking for a publisher. Along the way, the Sun Magazine took a strong shine to the book and published several chapters:
First Empty Your Cup
(Honorable mention, The Best American Essays 2012)
I Got Off The Beaten Path (But So Did Everyone Else)
