For "Darwin Year," a fresh-eyed and enchanting journey through South America in his footsteps

One snowy day in Ushuaia, Argentina, the self-proclaimed "southernmost city in the world," writer Eric Simons picked up a copy of Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle . Simons had just hiked the mountains overlooking Beagle Channel, and he found himself engrossed in Darwin's account.

Like Simons, Darwin was in his mid-twenties when he traveled to the continent. Simons followed Darwin further into South America--to stand where Darwin had stood and to explore the histories, legends and people that had fascinated him two centuries before. Simons trekked to as many of the locations Darwin wrote about as he could find to see if he could see these places through Darwin's eyes, and to learn what South Americans know about Darwin.

2009 is a double-anniversary year for Darwin: the 200th anniversary of his birth in February, and the 150th anniversary of publication of The Origin of Species. Darwin Slept Here is an innovative and thrilling new look at a familiar subject from a compelling new writer to watch.