The Signature of All Things

Author Elizabeth Gilbert
Narrator Juliet Stevenson
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Run Time 21 hours and 44 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Historical fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction, Trees, wildflowers and plants: general interest.

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What to expect

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
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'Quite simply one of the best novels I have read in years' - Elizabeth Day, Observer

'Charming . . . extensively researched, compellingly readable' - Jane Shilling, Daily Telegraph

'Sumptuous . . . Gilbert's prose is by turns flinty, funny, and incandescent' - New Yorker
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A captivating story of botany, exploration and desire, by the multimillion copy bestselling author of Eat Pray Love

Everything about life intrigues Alma Whittaker. Her passion for botany leads her far from home, from London to Peru to Tahiti, in pursuit of that rare specimen: knowledge. But as her careful studies draw her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she meets the man who she will come to love – whose perspective, radically different from her own, will transform the way she understands the world.

Radiating with all the heart, soul and earthiness as its unforgettable heroine, The Signature of All Things is a captivating celebration of the workings of this world, and the mechanisms behind all life.
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'My own 500-pager of choice? Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things . . . just read it . . . Hugely enjoyable' - Viv Groskop, Observer Books of the Year
'The story of Alma Whittaker’s journey of discovery has irresistible momentum' - Helen Dunmore, The Times
'Gilbert has written the novel of a lifetime' - O, The Oprah Magazine
'Filled with dazzling storytelling' - Susie Boyt, Financial Times
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Critics Review

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
The story of Alma Whittaker’s journey of discovery has irresistible momentum
The 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
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
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
Quite simply one of the best novels I have read in years … a bejewelled, dazzling novel
Observer
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
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
Gilbert writes superbly well
Daily Mail
An intricate, beautifully written historical novel … A passionate paean to the 19th-century women of science who strove for achievement against the odds
Metro
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
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
My own 500-pager of choice? Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things … just read it … Hugely enjoyable
Observer, Books of the Year

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