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LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
From the moment Alma Whittaker steps into the world, everything about life intrigues her. Instilled with an unquenchable sense of wonder by her father, a botanical explorer and the richest man in the New World, Alma is raised in a house of luxury and curiosity. It is not long before she becomes a gifted botanist in her own right. But as she flourishes and her research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she comes to love draws her in the opposite direction – into the realm of the spiritual, the divine and the magical.
The Signature of All Things soars across the globe of the nineteenth century, from London and Peru, to Philadelphia, Tahiti and beyond. Peopled with extraordinary characters along the way, most of all it has an unforgettable heroine in Alma Whittaker.
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Paperback Published 2 July 2020 592 pages
"She is an unflaggingly curious writer, prone to delightful touches ... Gilbert's period interests seem boundless - she explores everything from self-sacrifice, to homosexuality, Darwinism and Victorian pornography ... This is a novel to be chewed over, slowly." -- Lucy Atkins * Sunday Times
“Ms Gilbert has established herself as a straight-up storyteller who dares us into adventures of worldly discovery, and this novel stands as a winning next act ... A bracing homage to the many natures of genius and the inevitable progress of ideas, in a world that reveals its best truths to the uncommonly patient minds” – Barbara Kingsolver, International Herald Tribune
“Charming and compelling ... A big novel in all senses – extensively researched, compellingly readable and with a powerful charm that will surely propel it towards the bestseller lists” – Jane Shilling, Daily Telegraph
“Gilbert has written the novel of a lifetime” – O, The Oprah Magazine
“Sumptuous ... Gilbert's prose is by turns flinty, funny, and incandescent” – New Yorker