LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN‎'‎S PRIZE FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE From 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.‎