Claudia Esnouf went on a fearless, soul-searching odyssey to reclaim herself after the worst kind of heartbreak.
For nearly a year, she ventured deep into the wilds of the Caucasus Mountains, trekked through the spiritual heart of Nepal, and navigated the chaos of India-all the while battling inner turmoil. Along the way, she faced down a rampaging water buffalo, survived a freezing glacier crossing, and unknowingly camped in a minefield.
After returning to Europe, she embarked on the Camino Frances and, even after reaching Santiago de Compostela, refused to stop, walking the Camino Portugues as well-covering over 1,800 kilometers in eight months.
Walk Like a Girl is a testament to the strength it takes to keep walking, even when you're not sure where the path leads.
Claudia Esnouf went on a fearless, soul-searching odyssey to reclaim herself after the worst kind of heartbreak.
For nearly a year, she ventured deep into the wilds of the Caucasus Mountains, trekked through the spiritual heart of Nepal, and navigated the chaos of India-all the while battling inner turmoil. Along the way, she faced down a rampaging water buffalo, survived a freezing glacier crossing, and unknowingly camped in a minefield.
After returning to Europe, she embarked on the Camino Frances and, even after reaching Santiago de Compostela, refused to stop, walking the Camino Portugues as well-covering over 1,800 kilometers in eight months.
Walk Like a Girl is a testament to the strength it takes to keep walking, even when you're not sure where the path leads.
Walk Like A Girl is a work of fiction based on a true story. My true story. I travelled for almost a year in the Caucasus Mountains, Nepal, India and Europe. During this journey, I faced a rampant water buffalo, a freezing glacier crossing and spent a blissful night unaware that I was camping in a minefield – all of this whilst also experiencing the most painful heartbreak of my young life. When I flew back to Europe, I walked the Camino Frances.
Upon reaching Santiago de Compostela, I realised I wanted to continue and flew to Portugal, where I walked the Camino Portugues.
In eight months, I walked approximately 1,800 kilometres.
It took me some time to fully understand the difference between memoir and fiction. When I first wrote this in memoir version by copying extracts from my diary, the writing was stagnant, dull and far too guarded.
I later recognised I was in denial about my fears for my future and my deteriorating relationship.
Changing my characters’ identities and compressing the route and timeline allowed me to coax the story into the light and see the truth of the glorious, gut-wrenching journey I’d taken.
Walk Like a Girl: A Search for Self by Claudia Esnouf is an incredible story of exploration and discovery and taking chances—in our lives, our travel journeys, and our writing.
When Esnouf began telling her story as a memoir, she found her words to be too "stagnant, dull, and far too guarded," but when she rewrote her story as a fictionalized memoir from Antonia's perspective, the world of Walk Like a Girl opened up. Walking over 1,800 kilometers in eight months, she traveled through the Caucasus Mountains, Nepal, India, and the Camino Frances in Europe, only to then walk the Camino Portugues, as well. Fans of Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert will recognize a familiar, beloved story arc as Antonia tested her physical and mental limits, as well as the limits of her heart, as she questioned her marriage, happiness, and future amidst hikes, wandering mountains, and lingering danger.
Antonia's character is relatable, likable, and heavily nuanced. Not only is she strong and brave in the physical sense, braving unfamiliar countrysides, navigating new languages, and hiking challenging and dangerous terrain, but she also works through heartbreak, solitude, self-discovery, and for a while, a sense of directionlessness. What a person carries in their pack also says a lot about them, and while it was impractical, Antonia wanting to hold onto civilization, self-care, and the life she knew through her hair-straighteners, toiletries, and books, and gradually shedding these over the course of the journey, not only show her softer, more vulnerable side, but they also symbolize her letting go of her old life and walking toward a new one.
The heartbeat of this story pulses through the entire book and made me feel like I was journeying next to Antonia throughout her journey of solo travel and self-discovery, and knowing that this was a fictional take on a memoir made me feel like I knew Claudia Esnouf a little better, and I'm curious to see how these stories might be carried over and influence her future writing.
This story was uniquely transportive, and what I especially loved by the end was that early in the book, Antonia was thinking back on all of the travel stories she'd read in preparation for this trip, like Michael Palin, Anthony Bourdain, and Cheryl Strayed—and it's surreal because while these accounts helped her begin her trek, her story too is now part of my reading as I imagine making my own way.
From rampant water buffalo to crossing a freezing glacier to accidentally sleeping in a minefield, Antonia recounted all of these moments that were absolute showstoppers, but I found myself loving and reveling in the quiet moments, the small moments like a butterfly landing on your hand before moving on, and the introspection that took this book from being a good story to being an experience. I cannot recommend Walk Like a Girl enough and cannot wait to see what else Claudia Esnouf has in store for us.