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Review ------ 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 International Herald Tribune) 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 ungingly curious writer, prone to delightful touches ... Gilbert's period interests seem boundless - she explores everything from self-sacrifice, to sexuality, 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 ) Book Description ---------------- The New York Times bestseller Elizabeth Gilbert's first novel in twelve years. An extraordinary story of botany, exploration and desire, spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries