LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZEFrom 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.
Elizabeth Gilbert is the Number One New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and several other internationally bestselling books of fiction and non-fiction. Her story collection Pilgrims was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award; The Last American Man was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her follow-up memoir to Eat Pray Love, Committed, became an instant Number One New York Times bestseller. She has published two novels, Stern Men and The Signature of All Things, which was longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize. She lives in New Jersey.
www.elizabethgilbert.com
@GilbertLiz
Unlike anything else she has ever written ... Its prose has the elegant sheen of a 19th-century epic, but its concerns - the intersection of science and faith, the feminine struggle for fulfilment - are especially modern
International Herald Tribune - Steve Almond
The story of Alma Whittaker's journey of discovery has irresistible momentum
The Times - Helen Dunmore
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
New York Times - Barbara Kingsolver
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
Daily Telegraph - Jane Shilling
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
Quite simply one of the best novels I have read in years ... a bejewelled, dazzling novel
Observer - Elizabeth Day
Readers prepared to enter Gilbert Time will be rewarded: 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
Sunday Times - Lucy Atkins
A botanical odyssey through the nineteenth century, global in ambition, revelling in the period's insatiable curiosity about the world ... a tall tale, told with verve and wit
Guardian
Filled with dazzling storytelling
Financial Times - Susie Boyt
Gilbert writes superbly well
Daily Mail - Wendy Holden
An intricate, beautifully written historical novel ... A passionate paean to the 19th-century women of science who strove for achievement against the odds
Metro - Anita Sethi
Gilbert's observations, of both characters and locations, make this an unexpected joy and in Alma she has created a truly unforgettable heroine
Irish Examiner - Anita Chaudhuri
Astute and funny ... comes with generous helpings of optimism and romance. Cynics need not apply
Irish Sunday Mirror
Ambitious, boldly imagined and packed with authenticating detail, it engages very boldly with the interaction of art and science
Andrew Motion, Guardian
Gilbert reminds readers she can do, and undo, narratives through impeccably observed and original stories
Independent
Gilbert shows herself to be a writer at the height of her powers
O Magazine
Magnificent ... I was just a few pages into the book when I felt myself relax, aware that I was in the safe hands of a master story-teller
The Irish Times - Anna Carey
My own 500-pager of choice? Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things ... just read it ... Hugely enjoyable
Observer Books of the Year - Viv Groskop
I can't stop thinking about The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Hillary Clinton, International New York Times
This is a book to be chewed over, slowly
Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times
Every now and then, a book comes along that completely sweeps us up in the life of its heroine. The Signature of All Things is one of those books … Its unique premise, imaginable characters, witty prose and galloping pace make it the story to immerse yourself in this summer
Stylist