With his widely acclaimed debut, 28-year-old William Kowalski emerged as one of the most exciting and distinctive new American writers in years. In his new book, Kowalski once again proves himself an extraordinarily gifted writer as he follows his hero Billy Mann on his search for the mother who deserted him as a baby. Now 20 years old, Billy travels atop his beloved motorcycle to the last known address he has for her ot a side street named Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is a journey that will teach him many things about family, friends, love - and death. Filled with wondrous imagery and lyricism, Somewhere South of Here has a lightness of touch that belies how very much it has to say about life's greatest themes of all.

My name, for what it's worth, is William Amos Mann the Fourth, and I arrived in Santa Fe on the back of my steel-gray 1977 Kawasaki KZ1000, bringing with me only what I could carry on the back of it: an antique typewriter, some books, and a few articles of clothing. I'd just turned twenty, or so I assumed - my exact date of birth, like my origins, was unknown, so my grandfather had had to invent one on my behalf.

In search of the mother he has never known, Billy is flying south on his motorcycle to her last known address, a side street in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There he encounters as vibrant a cast of characters as the world can offer, including Eliza and her crazy daughter, and Consuelo, a beautiful gypsy Latina.

Consuelo sings at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame bar. She is waiting for stardom, but Billy comes along first. When she finally gets her big break, Consuelo wants him to leave with her for Los Angeles. But Billy has still not told Eliza his secret - that he is the baby she deserted twenty years ago. Life is all about choices and now Billy is faced with the biggest choice of all: Eliza, whom he must know in order to know himself, or Consuelo, the woman he loves more than anyone else in the world.