The Signature of All Things [Paperback] details from infibeam

About the Book :

5 January 1800.

At the beginning of a new century, Alma Whittaker is born into a perfect Philadelphia winter. Her father, Henry Whittaker, is a bold and charismatic botanical explorer whose vast fortune belies his lowly beginnings as a vagrant in Sir Joseph Bankss Kew Gardens and as a deck hand on Captain Cooks HMS Resolution. Almas mother, a strict woman from an esteemed Dutch family, has a knowledge of botany equal to any mans.

It is not long before Alma, an independent girl with a thirst for knowledge, comes into her own within the world of plants and science. But as her careful studies of moss take 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. She is a clear-minded scientist; he is a Utopian artist. But what unites this couple is a shared passion for knowing a desperate desire to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all of life.

The Signature of All Things is a big novel, about a big century. It soars across the globe from London, to Peru, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam. Peopled with extraordinary characters missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses and the quite mad above all it has an unforgettable heroine in Alma Whittaker, a woman of the Enlightened Age who stands defiantly on the cusp of the modern.

Interesting Facts :

One of the most important novels of 2013. This glorious, sweeping historical novel can be compared with Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, with more than a touch of Jane Austen
Elizabeth Gilbert is also an acclaimed novelist. She was a finalist of the PEN/Hemingway Award, a finalist of the National Book Award and her novel, Stern Men, was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book
Eat, Pray, Love has sold over ten million copies around the world and was made into a film starring Julia Roberts

About the Author :

Elizabeth Gilbert is the acclaimed author of five books of fiction and non-fiction. She is most well known for her 2006 bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, which has sold over ten million copies worldwide and was made into a film starring Julia Roberts. Her short story collection Pilgrims was nominated for the PEN/Hemingway Award, her novel Stern Men was a New York Times Notable Book and The Last American Man was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent work, Committed, was a Number One New York Times bestseller. Elizabeth Gilbert lives in New Jersey.