Alexandra Anton’s Santiaga is a moving novel about self-discovery.

The story follows the titular Santiaga, a young, determined woman who passionately seeks enlightenment. Against her widowed mother’s wishes, she leaves home with her best friend to live in a spiritual community. She soon also leaves this community, however, after a betrayal and works as a restaurant cook and then as chef and lover to an actor.

When Santiaga’s lover rejects her after learning she is pregnant, she’s hurt, feeling he’s punishing her for something her body did without intention. After another betrayal, she retreats to nature, leaving her young daughter to be raised by her daughter’s father, the former lover.

Santiaga is a fascinating character, quietly determined to discover her path and willing to instinctively explore different experiences, from contemplation in religious communities to hard labor in restaurants to finding passion in a love affair. Along the way, Santiaga learns about the complexities of love, relationships, and attachments, finding her own sort of peace. Throughout, the story offers quietly powerful language.

In an Author’s Note, Anton comments that this novel is loosely based on Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, but with a woman as the protagonist. While echoes of Hesse’s work come across, the book feels like its own unique work, grounded in women’s realities.

For example, Santiaga argues with her mother before she leaves home, convinced that her mother emotionally abandoned her in grieving her father’s death. Much later, having left her own daughter, she realizes what her mother had been going through. When her daughter reluctantly stays with Santiaga over a summer, Santiaga struggles to connect with the angry, defiant child, feeling guilty for leaving but simultaneously knowing she needed to go. These trials seem based more on life’s messiness than the spiritual abstractions of Siddhartha. Nonetheless, Santiaga realizes profound truths about time and love.

Readers looking for an unusual female character who achieves spiritual growth through life’s practical complications will enjoy this poignant story.

Also available as an ebook.