Actor Andrew McCarthy to discuss new book in Stamford

Two years ago, actor Andrew McCarthy walked hundreds of miles with his son across Spain in the hopes of strengthening their relationship. Later this month, he plans to come to the Nutmeg State to share that experience.

McCarthy, best known as an actor in the ’80s movies “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Pretty in Pink” and “Weekend at Bernie’s,” will discuss his latest book, “Walking With Sam: A Father, A Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain” at 6:30 p.m. May 25 at Stamford’s Ferguson Library’s DiMattia Building.

The memoir, which was released Tuesday, chronicles Andrew Mc-Carthy and his son Sam McCarthy, then 19, on a 31-day walk through Spain’s Camino de Santiago in 2021.

“When Andrew McCarthy’s eldest son began to take his first steps into adulthood, McCarthy found himself wishing time would slow down,” the book’s description reads. “Looking to create a more meaningful connection with Sam before he fled the nest, as well as recreate his own life-altering journey decades before, McCarthy decided the two of them should set out on a trek like few others.”

The Camino de Santiago is a series of routes through Spain, France and Portugal leading to the shrine of Saint James the Great, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ and is hailed as the patron saint of Spain.

During the trek, the pair discussed topics like divorce, trauma from school and fame, according to Ferguson Library. Like his father, Sam, is an actor and has had roles in series like “Condor” and “Dead to Me.”

“I just wanted to be able to spend that time [with him]. And he was going through a lot of stuff in his life. I was going through stuff in my life, and I knew that … walking that distance could kind of burn through a lot of our defenses and a lot of our anxieties and fears and just sort of help bring us home to ourselves and to each other in a certain way,” Andrew told Us Weekly.

Andrew took the same journey by himself around 25 years ago and said it helped him “liberate” himself from fear. The actor said it was a good time to retake the journey as the world was experiencing a lot of fear due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he told Forbes.

Tickets to the talk are on sale for $15 to library members and $25 for the general public.