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Her Fearful Symmetry

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9781439165393.jpgI waited to start Her Fearful Symmetry until I knew I would be able to devote several days to reading it. That’s because I found Audrey Niffenegger’s first novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, so engrossing that I stayed up until 2 a.m. on two consecutive nights in order to finish it, so I wanted to be sure I could devote adequate time to her compelling second novel.

Her Fearful Symmetry opens with a letter that alters the fate of every character. Julia and Valentina Poole are semi-normal American twenty-year-olds with seemingly little interest in college or finding jobs. Their attachment to one another is intense. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. From a London solicitor, the enclosed letter informs Valentina and Julia that their English aunt Elspeth Noblin, whom they never knew, has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions to this inheritance: that they live in it for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the estranged Elspeth and Edie, their mother.

The girls move to Elspeth’s flat, which borders the vast and ornate Highgate Cemetery, where Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Radclyffe Hall, Stella Gibbons and Karl Marx are buried. Julia and Valentina come to know the living residents of their building. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword-puzzle setter suffering from crippling obsessive compulsive disorder; Marijke, Martin’s devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth’s elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt’s neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including — perhaps — their aunt.

Author of one of the most beloved first novels in recent years, Niffenegger returns with an unnerving, unforgettable and enchanting ghost story, a novel about love and identity, secrets and sisterhood and the tenacity of life — even after death. 

This is a very worthy successor to The Time Traveler’s Wife — an engrossing tale with riveting characters whose stories you will want to continue to follow long after you finish the book. Be prepared to clear your schedule for this book, because once you start it you won’t want to put it down until you’re done!

Comments

  1. astrid says

    I got about two lines into your review then I stopped reading because I was already convinced! Didn’t need to hear any more and lose the surprise. Thanks for the review!

  3. KittyPride says

    I have about eight books waiting for me to start, this is one of them 🙂 I loved the Time Traveller’s Wife too, so sad yet hopeful. I am reading two books right now one to reconnect with my younger self (the first Trixie Belden book) and Corked to connect with my wine loving adult self 😀

  6. Haley-O (Cheaty) says

    I haven’t heard anything good about this book. But I trust KATH! I loved the Time Traveler’s Wife, so I’m happy, now, to go pick this one up. Looks tres cool.

  7. GLEElover says

    I haven’t had time to read a book in a while. The opportunity may present itself over the holidays. I really like the premise of this book. It doesn’t sound like anything I have read before. If it’s anything like the “Time Travelers Wife” it should be a great read!

  8. Jen says

    Oooh. Sounds good! I am just reading “Push” which is the book the movie “Precious” is based on. Really, really good.

  9. Sarah says

    I cannot wait to read this! The Time Travelers Wife is one of my favourite books- I, like you, will have to wait until a weekend so I can fully engross myself in it! Can’t wait!