The Signature of All Things

_______________SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION_______________''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_______________A captivating story of botany, exploration and desire, by the multimillion copy bestselling author of Eat Pray LoveEverything 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