The Signature of
All Things is the story of Alma Whitaker, born in 1800 in Philadelphia in the family of one of the richest men in the US, who had built
a fortune dealing in import-export of exotic
plants all over the globe. The novel
pans across Alma’s early childhood through her youth to her very last days. As
an only child in the family and exposed to botanical details and erudite gatherings from her infant time, Alma travels
through the 500 page book searching for knowledge and love. The plot twists and
turns around her interest in botany, secret erotic needs, an adopted sister, a
reserved life where emotional expressions were forbidden and an unrequited love. The story of sacrifice and three disturbed lives following a failed three way love unfolds following the death of her father in her early 50s which drives her across the ocean to
Tahiti and then Holland till she eventually finds peace with her unpublished book in a Botanical Institute owned by her maternal grand parents.
An engaging book
on self discovery, this is a brilliant work by Elizabeth Gilbert and is definitely a leisure
read. We give it 7.5 in a scale of 10.
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