The Signature of All Things (High/Low) - Tapa dura

Unlike anything else she has ever written ... Its prose has the elegant sheen of a 19th-century epic, but its concerns - the intersection of science and faith, the feminine struggle for fulfilment - are especially modern (Steve Almond International Herald Tribune)

The story of Alma Whittaker's journey of discovery has irresistible momentum (Helen Dunmore The Times)

Ms Gilbert has established herself as a straight-up storyteller who dares us into adventures of worldly discovery, and this novel stands as a winning next act ... A bracing homage to the many natures of genius and the inevitable progress of ideas, in a world that reveals its best truths to the uncommonly patient minds (Barbara Kingsolver New York Times)

Charming and compelling ... A big novel in all senses - extensively researched, compellingly readable and with a powerful charm that will surely propel it towards the bestseller lists (Jane Shilling Daily Telegraph)

Gilbert has written the novel of a lifetime ( O, The Oprah Magazine)

Sumptuous ... Gilbert's prose is by turns flinty, funny, and incandescent ( New Yorker )

Quite simply one of the best novels I have read in years ... a bejewelled, dazzling novel (Elizabeth Day Observer )

Readers prepared to enter Gilbert Time will be rewarded: she is an unflaggingly curious writer, prone to delightful touches ... Gilbert's period interests seem boundless - she explores everything from self-sacrifice, to homosexuality, Darwinism and Victorian pornography ... This is a novel to be chewed over, slowly (Lucy Atkins Sunday Times)

A botanical odyssey through the nineteenth century, global in ambition, revelling in the period's insatiable curiosity about the world ... a tall tale, told with verve and wit ( Guardian )

Filled with dazzling storytelling (Susie Boyt Financial Times )