The Way of a Pilgrim

Recommended by Arthur C. Brooks, Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership

Brooks describes “The Way of a Pilgrim” as “the world’s most boring page-turner.” The fictional account chronicles the narrator’s pilgrimage through 19th-century rural Russia. During his trip, he recites the “Jesus Prayer,” a short, simple supplication repeated “over and over again like a mantra.” It had a profound impact on Brooks’s life and helped him crack “the code for true satisfaction.”

“It teaches the reader that the secret to adventure in life is not going larger,” Brooks said, “but smaller: noticing the details of life.”