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 -- Steve Almond * <i><b>International Herald Tribune</i></b> * The story of Alma Whittaker's journey of discovery has irresistible momentum -- Helen Dunmore * <b><i> The Times</b></i> * 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 * <b><i>International Herald Tribune</b></i> * 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 * <b><i> Daily Telegraph</b></i> * Gilbert has written the novel of a lifetime * <b><i> O, The Oprah Magazine</b></i> * Sumptuous ... Gilbert's prose is by turns flinty, funny, and incandescent * <b><i> New Yorker </b></i> * Quite simply one of the best novels I have read in years ... a bejewelled, dazzling novel -- Elizabeth Day * <b><i> Observer </b></i> * 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 -- Lucy Atkins * <b><i> Sunday Times</b></i> * 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 * <b><i> Guardian </b></i> * Filled with dazzling storytelling -- Susie Boyt * <b><i> Financial Times </b></i> * Gilbert writes superbly well -- Wendy Holden * <i><b>Daily Mail</i></b> * An intricate, beautifully written historical novel ... A passionate paean to the 19th-century women of science who strove for achievement against the odds -- Anita Sethi * <i><b>Metro</i></b> * Gilbert's observations, of both characters and locations, make this an unexpected joy and in Alma she has created a truly unforgettable heroine -- Anita Chaudhuri * <i><b>Irish Examiner</i></b> * Astute and funny ... comes with generous helpings of optimism and romance. Cynics need not apply * <i><b>Irish Sunday Mirror</b></i> * Ambitious, boldly imagined and packed with authenticating detail, it engages very boldly with the interaction of art and science * <b>Andrew Motion, <i>Guardian</i></b> * Gilbert reminds readers she can do, and undo, narratives through impeccably observed and original stories * <i><b>Independent</b></i> * Gilbert shows herself to be a writer at the height of her powers * <i><b>O Magazine</i></b> * 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 -- Anna Carey * <i><b>The Irish Times</i></b> * My own 500-pager of choice? Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things ... just read it ... Hugely enjoyable -- Viv Groskop * <b> <i>Observer</i> Books of the Year</b> *