The signature of all things, by Elizabeth Gilbert

I have never been able to get past the title of Gilbert’s best known work, Eat, Pray, Love, so this was my first experience with her work.  I think I may still pass on her memoirs, but as a novelist, she sure can write.  It didn’t hurt that the novel has a strong female scientist as its protagonist, or that the botany involved centered on mosses and orchids, oddly, both interests of mine.   Reminiscent of the best of historical fiction, like A. S. Byatt’s Possession, Gilbert really makes you believe that Alma Whittaker actually existed and that her contributions to the study of evolution in the mid-nineteenth century were overlooked.  Many may find it too long but I enjoyed the sweep of ideas and geographical locations it encompassed, and found Alma to be a believable, sympathetic, and very human.  A survivor who in the end is denied the opportunity to pass on her genes.  498 pp.