A new title from Elizabeth Gilbert

signatureAfter Eat pray love where could she go and how did she get there? Well, Elizabeth Gilbert has done it well. Her new title The signature of all things has received a lot attention. But hold on, this is not a memoir , but a fiction book. From our catalogue here is something about this book

Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker–a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction  into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist  but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life. The story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. But most memorable of all, it is the story of Alma Whittaker, who born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution- bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas.

So why did Gilbert write a fiction? Well, I’ve found this piece of lovely talk on Ted Talks. It’s just lovely.
Of course, as usual you can borrow a copy of Elizabeth Gilbert‘s new book from Parramatta City Library.
http://www.ted.com/talks/browse