About The Hidden Camino
What we know about the past shapes how we understand ourselves in the present. But what happens when parts of that past have been forgotten, silenced or rewritten? The Hidden Camino follows one woman's pilgrimage into the stories beneath the familiar history, and asks, what becomes possible when we begin to remember differently.
"Wonderful experience! Louise Sommer shows us that our learning and history must be more than a passive experience."
Dr. Jim Brown, Emeritus Assistant Professor in History, Elon University, USA
"A true story fold with excitement, passion, and precision... A story which leaves you feeling you have made the journey."
Dr. Gannon, Emeritus Assistant Professor in Social Education, SCU, Australia
What if the journey you thought you knew was hiding another story?
Walk an ancient road.
Follow the symbols.
Question the history you inherited.
Listen for what was forgotten.
You may think this is a story about walking the Camino. It is. But that is only the journey on the surface.
“Your writing didn’t just tell a story. It opened a door to something I didn’t know was missing.” - Reader
Readers have called it: "A beautiful, rare integration of personal journey and deep insight.”
Beneath the footsteps, landscapes and encounters lies another journey that takes you deep into the heart of the Camino: history, identity, belonging, and the stories that have shaped who we are, even when we have lost them along the way.
As I walked the ancient Camino de Santiago, I began noticing what was present in its churches, art, symbols and stories.
And I began noticing what was missing.
A pattern began to emerge: stories forgotten, ignored, altered or pushed to the edges.
Especially the stories of women who had once mattered, and then somehow disappeared from the story.
That discovery opened another Camino beneath the one I was walking.
A journey into forgotten histories, religious and cultural narratives, and a question that became increasingly difficult to ignore:
Who gets to decide what becomes knowledge? - and what disappears from it?
What we remember shapes who we become.
History doesn't stay in the past.
The stories a culture remembers, and the stories it forgets, shape how we understand ourselves, where we believe we belong, whose voices we learn to trust, and what we imagine is possible.
When parts of our collective story disappear, we don't simply lose information. We can lose ways of understanding ourselves. This is where The Hidden Camino moves beyond the Camino itself.
It asks what happens when we begin to look again. When we question what we have inherited. When forgotten knowledge returns and changes the story we thought we knew.
Because remembering is not about returning to the past.
It is about seeing the present differently. And ultimately, having greater freedom to decide what we carry forward. But when our stories are taken from us, who do we step empowered into our future? That is what The Hidden Camino is about.
A journey that stayed with its readers.
"You're book truly changed my life, changed my perception of how I understand myself and what I can become. Thank you."
Margaret, Educator
I loved reading your book. You've inspired me with your story. It's fabulous.
Azriel, Editor
"What a beautiful book! You're a great storyteller and have something very important to tell!"
Mandy, New York City
More than a decade later, I am returning to The Hidden Camino.
Not to rewrite the journey. To go deeper into what it revealed.
The Third Edition marks a new chapter in the life of the book, with new reflections, expanded insights and a completely new ending.
When The Hidden Camino was first published in 2014 (second edition in 2016), I was writing from inside the journey. Following the questions that emerged as I walked, researched and began uncovering the stories hidden beneath the famous Camino.
More than a decade later, I return to those questions from a different place. The world has changed enormously. My knowledge and understanding have changed. Questions about who creates knowledge, whose stories we inherit, what is forgotten, and how those stories shape our identity, resilience, and sense of belonging, feel more relevant than ever.
The Third Edition will take the journey further, bringing together the personal, historical and cultural threads of The Hidden Camino in a deeper finale that looks not only at what we have inherited from the past, but at what we choose to carry forward.
Because knowing where we come from is not about living in the past. It is about having greater freedom to shape what comes next.
The Third Edition of The Hidden Camino is now in development.
Be among the first to know when the journey continues.