To the Edge of the World

Volume I in the trilogy. To the Edge of the World is a seafaring adventure in the tradition of Patrick O Brian, chartering the lives of Captain Robert FitzRoy and Charles Darwin, their friendship, and the historical voyage that ultimately drove them apart. In 1831, FitzRoy, a Christian Tory, and the liberal naturalist Darwin board the HMS Beagle and set sail for Tierra del Fuego. As they travel around the world, exploring the coasts of Patagonia and surveying the Galápagos Islands, the two men forge a lifelong bond while debating morality, nationality, biology, fate, and religion. But Darwin s theories on evolution, which go against everything FitzRoy believes in, threaten their friendship.

To the Edge of the World, originally published in the U.K. as This Thing of Darkness, was Harry Thompson s first novel. In 2005, it was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the Pendleton First Novel Award. Thompson died in November 2005 after a battle with cancer.