The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. 488 pages

Elizabeth Gilbert, famous for her bestseller “Eat Pray Love” has hit another one out of the ballpark with this new novel. “Eat” was autobiography, and “Signature” is historical fiction, but under Gilbert’s pen, the characters are so well drawn, you’d swear it was biography.

The story centers on Alma Whitacker, the fiercely intelligent only daughter of Henry Whitacker, a young  man born to poverty, who pulls himself up by his wits to become the richest man in Philadelphia during the 1800s. Alma, homeschooled by her equally intelligent Dutch mother, is fluent in seven languages at a young age but her passion is her lifelong study of mosses. Her academic achievement becomes intertwined with romance, exotic adventures and rivalry with an adopted sister. Gilbert not only writes remarkable prose within a tight storyline, but also offers great quotes such as this one from Henry Whitacker commenting to Alma about marriage: “Poorly matched pairings are as thick as flies in this world.” A feast of a book.