Books
My books focus on travel, from in-depth travel guides to travel narratives and memoirs that journey off-the-beaten-path and include outdoors adventures, food and wine, spiritual experiences, archaeology, prehistory, and cross-cultural themes. All are researched on foot, going into remote areas, and from working in the native languages to learn directly from the locals and gather grassroots stories.
The Way of the Wild Goose (May 2022 release) is a pilgrimage-turned-adventure story in pursuit of a pagan mystery on the Camino de Santiago across France and Spain: Through three pilgrimages across southern France and northern Spain that define a single journey on the Camino de Santiago, The Way of the Wild Goose recounts an inner and outer journey full of wild nature, ancient roads and history, quirky pilgrims, wise and humorous locals, and mysterious folklore. It’s a compelling tale of quest, initiation, and transformation following the Way of Saint James. The Way of the Wild Goose is also a detective story that reveals an old mystery: Why is the goose associated with the medieval Camino de Santiago, and how did it come to preserve a whole universe of pagan, pre-Christian lore in one innocent symbol? When longtime trekker Bahrami decided to find out, she unknowingly catapulted herself into a true wild goose chase, unearthing a magnetically alive and meaningful long walk on the ancient roads in France and Spain—and a journey into the Self.
The Way of the Wild Goose received Honorable Mention for Travel Books in the 2023 Lowell Thomas
Awards in Travel Journalism sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation and is
available at local bookstores and online: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop, among other sellers.
See Monkfish Book Publishing's author interview on The Way of the Wild Goose.
Moon Camino de Santiago--Sacred Sites, Historic Villages, Local Food & Wine (2022, second edition), a guidebook on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, the Camino Francés, from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in southwestern France, across northern Spain, to Santiago de Compostela in Iberia's far northwest. A guidebook and companion with practical details, maps, and trail notes infused with highlights of local food and wine, stories from regional folklore, and intriguing details about the many sacred layers of the Camino, from prehistory through the Middle Ages to the present,
Moon Camino de Santiago is available at your local bookstore and online at Hachette , BookShop, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, among other sellers.
Moon Camino de Santiago--Sacred Sites, Historic Villages, Local Food & Wine (2019, first edition), a guidebook on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, the Camino Francés, from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in southwestern France, across northern Spain, to Santiago de Compostela in Iberia's far northwest. A guidebook and companion with practical details, maps, and trail notes infused with highlights of local food and wine, stories from regional folklore, and intriguing details about the many sacred layers of the Camino, from prehistory through the Middle Ages to the present,
Cafe Oc--A Nomad's Tales of Magic, Mystery, and Finding Home in the Dordogne of Southwestern France, a travel memoir about the deep traditional life in southwestern France and about a nomad finding home and leaving her tent poles anchored in place.
Cafe Oc is available at your local bookstore and online from BookShop, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon, among other sellers.
www.amazon.com/Caf%C3%A9-Neandertal-Excavating-Europes-Ancient/dp/1619026104/ref=monarch_sidesheet
Cafe Neandertal--Excavating Our Past in One of Europe's Most Ancient Places is a mystery, travel memoir, and scientific inquiry into who were the Neandertals across Eurasia while maintaining a firm foothold in the world of prehistory in southwestern France, considered one of the world's most highly concentrated regions for Neandertal sites.
Cafe Neandertal is available at your local bookstore and online from Counterpoint, Barnes & Noble, BookShop, and Amazon, among other sellers.
"...this exceedingly engaging title [is] more like a French version of Under the Tuscan Sun (1996) with an origins-of-humanity spin than the expected scholarly tome." Read the whole review on Booklist.
Read the review on Publishers Weekly.
Read what Périgord-based novelist Martin Walker, author of the Bruno mystery series, says about Café Neandertal (his pick as one of the five best books on the Périgord/Dordogne!) on Shepherd.
Cafe Neandertal--Excavating Our Past in One of Europe's Most Ancient Places is a mystery, travel memoir, and scientific inquiry into who were the Neandertals across Eurasia while maintaining a firm foothold in the world of prehistory in southwestern France, considered one of the world's most highly concentrated regions for Neandertal sites.
Cafe Neandertal is available at your local bookstore and online from Counterpoint, Barnes & Noble, BookShop, and Amazon, among other sellers.
"...this exceedingly engaging title [is] more like a French version of Under the Tuscan Sun (1996) with an origins-of-humanity spin than the expected scholarly tome." Read the whole review on Booklist.
Read the review on Publishers Weekly.
Read what Périgord-based novelist Martin Walker, author of the Bruno mystery series, says about Café Neandertal (his pick as one of the five best books on the Périgord/Dordogne!) on Shepherd.
The Spiritual Traveler Spain is a celebration of the truly sacred and spiritual places, traditions, peoples, and roads of Spain. It is a non-denominational and deeply anthropological and folkloric travel book on Spain's prehistoric, pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim past. It is also a spiritual exploration of the country's diverse present, such as in emerging communities dedicated to Buddhism, Hinduism, animistic Earth-based spiritualities, as well as current revivals of the land's connection to the three Abrahamic faiths.
Each chapter explores a region, a thematic route—to take on the road by foot, bike, bus, train or car—and the most vibrant spiritual life of that area.
The Spiritual Traveler is available at your local bookstore and online from Paulist Press, BookShop, and Amazon, among other sellers.
Historic Walking Guides Madrid is the ultimate walking guide to both well-known and off-the-beaten path historic sites in Madrid. Its eight walks are organized by theme, such as historic mysteries, wine and historic taverns, artist's and writer's Madrid, medieval Madrid of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, early modern Hapsburg Madrid, Enlightenment Bourbon Madrid, and Belle Époque Madrid of the past century. Throughout all the walks, Bahrami infuses the guide with informative archaeological, historic, folkloric, and anecdotal information from conversations with longtime locals.
With this guide, you can follow in the footsteps of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Goya, Sorolla, and Hemingway, among many others, stop for a drink in one of their favorite cafes, sleuth through streets to solve unsolved mysteries and ghost stories, or relax with a taverns' tour while lunching in the world's oldest restaurant, happily located in Madrid.
Buy Historic Walking Guides Madrid at your local bookstore and online from DestinWorld and Amazon,
among other sellers.
Contributing essayist and writer to numerous books, including The Best Women's Travel Writing 2010, National Geographic books, and several Michelin Green Guides and Must See Guides, such as Provence, Paris, the Loire, Chicago, USA East, USA West, Charlotte, and Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
