The Parallel Path
Love, Grit and Walking the North
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The Parallel Path
Narrated by:
Melanie Crawley
Buy Now for $26.99
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Narrated by:
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Melanie Crawley
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By:
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Jenn Ashworth
About this listen
BENJAMIN MYERS, author of The Offing
'With honesty, humour and determination, Ashworth's journey takes the reader from coast to coast in search of freedom'
JESSICA ANDREWS, author of Milk Teeth
'A miracle of a book . . . One of our finest human nature writers'
RICHARD BEARD, author of Sad Little Men
'Stunning - and stunningly intelligent'
JULIE MYERSON, author of Nonfiction
Burnt out and longing for an escape, Jenn Ashworth emerged from lockdown with a compulsive need to walk - and to walk away. Armed with little more than the knowledge imparted by a two-day orienteering course and a set of maps, she embarked on the most epic of English walks: Wainwright's Coast to Coast.
Guided not just by Wainwright's writing but also by daily letters from her friend Clive - facing an epic journey of his own - Jenn's pilgrimage soon becomes a chance to re-engage with the act of caring for others and for oneself.
But the walk's tricky terrain is not the only thing standing in Jenn's way. As days go by, her balance begins to fail her and the act of putting one foot in front the other becomes a new exercise in caution. When a vicious heatwave forces her to pause her expedition and gives her an opportunity to investigate the new limitations of her body, Jenn is confronted with a life-altering diagnosis - and a new path of self-discovery.©2025 Jenn Ashworth
Critic Reviews
I admired the magnificent, multi-strata meditation on which she takes the reader while putting one foot in front of the other for 190 north-country miles... This blend of memoir and travelogue is more than the story of Ashworth's walk through the north-country landscapes through which she passes. It also becomes a pilgrimage inwards as Ashworth reflects on life, death, bereavement, motherhood, being a northerner, friendship, what it means to care for someone and be cared in turn, the limitations of one body and a single lifespan. I felt I was walking with her, stride for stride. (Non Fiction Book of the Month)
Touching, thoughtful and frank - Jenn is a wonderful writer. (David Nicholls, author of YOU ARE HERE)
Forget the Salt Path - this writer's introspective journey provides genuine food for thought... Chastened but buoyant, she's stimulating to be with, her book the best kind of walking companion. (Blake Morrison)
I've long loved Ashworth's uncanny fiction, and this memoir is filled with her characteristic understanding of the connections between the physical world and our interior lives. Wonderful for taking on a walk yourself.
Reading The Parallel Path feels like going on a long walk with an old friend: Jenn Ashworth is exceptionally good company. I loved it. (Mark Haddon, author of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME)
Whether it's strange and haunted novels that linger long after the last page has been turned, utterly unnerving short stories or brave memoir excursions in which her own life is laid bare, whatever Jenn Ashworth turns her hand to, I'm there to read it (Benjamin Myers, author of THE OFFING)
The Parallel Path is an exploration of need and care. As Jenn Ashworth walks across the country, she learns the strength and precarity of inhabiting a body, and the measures we sometimes take to resist softness. She considers what it means to be from the north, a place which predicates itself on toughness, and how to make space for vulnerability within that. With honesty, humour and determination, Ashworth's journey takes the reader from coast to coast in search of freedom, teaching us to recognise the fragility and strength in our mortality (Jessica Andrews, author of MILK TEETH)
Ashworth traces her solo journey walking the North of England's Coast to Coast route, while reflecting on everything from grief to motherhood. (Best books of July)
Jenn Ashworth finds a new direction - that of acceptance and resilience - in this beautifully realised, powerful memoir. (Catherine Taylor, author of THE STIRRINGS)
Inspiring, authentic and well crafted.
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