The Signature of All Things: A Novel

pathetism—the idea that chance could be induced by suggestion—which

vitriolic.

contrivance,

accretion

Alma that when the Tahitians picked a star to follow for navigation, they called it their aveia—their god of guidance.

She wrote, “All transformation appears to be motivated by desperation and emergency.”

“the signature of all things”—namely, that God had hidden clues for humanity’s betterment inside the design of every flower, leaf, fruit, and tree on earth. All the natural world was a divine code, Boehme claimed, containing proof of our Creator’s love.

At the other end of the spectrum, Alma postulated, there was Divine Time—an incomprehensible eternity in which galaxies grew, and where God dwelled.

ebullience