“This is Zen and the Art of Donkey Walking. I cannot imagine a more charming, informative or restful book." Jim Crace
“Back then, everyday was a Saturday afternoon, open for business, rubbing shoulders with the world, with a world that was intent on spending, spending, spending; now, with a donkey, it's always Sunday, a slouching Sunday afternoon in which every second counts. Yet there's nothing to buy or anything to sell, only a donkey a little after dawn…”
'The demon of speed is often associated with forgetting, with avoidance…and slowness with memory and confronting', observes Milan Kundera in his novel, Slowness. With this purpose in mind—a search for slowness and tranquillity—Andy Merrifield sets out on a journey of the soul with a friend's donkey as his only companion, to walk amid the ruins and spectacular vistas of southern France's Haute-Auvergne.
The steadfast pace of the journey allows Merrifield to confront himself as well as to consider the larger mysteries of life – literature, science, beauty, the universality of nature. And, time and again, his humble donkey Gribouille surprises him with his subtle wisdom, reminding him that enlightenment is all around us if we only take the time to seek it.