Who is Alma Singer from The History of Love and what is their importance?

Alma Singer is a 15 year-old girl living in Brooklyn with her mother, Charlotte, and her younger brother Bird. She is named after every female character in a book named The History of Love, which her father, David, gave to Charlotte as he was courting her. David died of cancer when Alma was seven years old, and this loss greatly impacts her life. When Alma learns that her father was a great outdoors man, she becomes obsessed with learning how to survive in the wilderness, in the event that something should happen to her mother and brother. She studies books on edible plants and writes three volumes of notes entitled How to Survive in the Wild.