Guess the author, win a prize. The answer: ELIZABETH GILBERT

By Mad Dog
Published: Jun 01, 2013

From the publisher’s catalogue, [REDACTED’s] first novel in twelve years, weighing in at 512 pages:

This is an extraordinary story of botany, exploration and desire, spanning across much of the 19th century. The novel follows the fortunes of the brilliant Alma [REDACTED] (daughter of a bold and charismatic botanical explorer) as she comes into her own within the world of plants and science. As Alma’s careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she loves draws her in the opposite direction — into the realm of the spiritual, the divine and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose is a Utopian artist. But what unites this couple is a shared passion for knowing — a desperate need to understand the workings of this world, and the mechanism behind of all life. [REDACTED] is a big novel, about a big century. Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, this story novel soars across the globe — from London, to Peru, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam and beyond. It is written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time. Alma is a witness to history, as well as maker of history herself. She stands on the cusp of the modern, with one foot still in the Enlightened Age, and she is certain to be loved by readers across the world.