“Along The Way: The Journey of a Father and Son” by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez with Hope Edelman due out from Free Press at $27 on May 8

In their dual memoir, “Along The Way: The Journey of a Father and Son” actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez recount their lives, sharing in alternating chapters stories that span more than five decades of family history, show business tradition and faith.

Sheen, who was born and still is Ramon Antonio Gerardo Estevez,  is perhaps best known for his performances in “Badlands,” “Apocalypse Now,” and “Wall Street” on the big screen and as President Josiah Bartlet on television’s “The West Wing.”

Estevez came to fame in the 1980s with star turns in “The Outsiders,” “The Breakfast Club,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” and “The Mighty Ducks” and flourished as a writer and director of “The War at Home,” “Bobby,” and “The Way,” films with substantive social subjects.

Their book should appeal to readers throughout the Trenton Diocese for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Sheen is well known, remembered and highly regarded for his many on and off-Broadway roles as a young actor and his appearances on behalf of local charities throughout his career.

I’m happy to say that I have a store of such memories myself and will never forget the first time I saw Sheen. He stood poised like a high wire artist above the heads of the audience at The Public Theater in New York, ready to swing into action (literally) in a production of Hamlet director Joe Papp updated and set in Fidel Castro’s Havana.

The 432-page, hard cover book, co-written with Hope Edelman, author of the international bestseller “Motherless Daughters,” takes readers through the ages with Sheen & Co. It introduces us to Sheen at age 21, a struggling actor living hand to mouth, and his one and only wife, Janet. We get to meet them welcoming their firstborn, Emilio and the three children – Ramon, Charlie and Renee – who follow quickly on his heels.

We learn of their abiding sense of family, seeing that as the young actor moves successfully from stage to screen, his kith and kin travel with him from New York to California and locations around the world for classics such as “Catch-22,” “Badlands,” and “Apocalypse Now.”

According to advance publicity from Free Press, Emilio and his father had a special relationship, mirroring each other’s passions and sometimes clashing in their differences. The book details how the father and son experienced the beginnings of a spiritual awakening after traveling together to India for the filming of “Gandhi.”

This stirring would pave the way for Sheen to return to his Catholic roots and Estevez to explore his spirituality more fully.

It eventually led the pair to Spain, to the Basque region where Sheen’s father, Francisco Estevez, had been born and raised.

 There, along the Camino de Santiago – Way of St. James – the son would direct the father in their acclaimed film, “The Way,” a project inspired by Estevez’s son Taylor who married in the Basque country and settled there.

Replete with vivid, behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the multitalented father and son’s work with other noteworthy actors and directors, “Along the Way” is a recognizable family saga, rich in humor, rebellion, regrets and triumphs.