Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Title: Her Fearful Symmetry
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Release Date: September 29, 2010
Pages: 406
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Best Book Quote: “She felt as though her soul were attempting to climb out by way of her esophagus.”

In Her Fearful Symmetry, author Audrey Niffenegger has penned a story that exceeds the already-high expectations set by her blockbuster 2003 debut novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife.

After the untimely death of their Aunt Elspeth from cancer, a pair of twin sisters—Julia and Valentina Poole—inherit Elspeth’s London apartment. The gift comes with some strange strings attached, including a requirement that the sisters live in the apartment for a year before selling it.

As soon as they’re ensconced in Elspeth’s flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery, Julia and Valentina get to know the neighborhood. Their neighbors include a number of oddballs, including Elspeth’s lover, Robert. As a tour guide who is writing a scholarly paper about Highgate, Robert knows everything there is to know about the cemetery—including its secrets. As the story unfolds, spirits of the dead make occasional comeback appearances, which means that Aunt Elspeth may not be gone for good.

Partly a ghost story, partly a tale about the intensity of twin sister relationships, Her Fearful Symmetry is a complex novel. Highgate Cemetery is a real burial site that opened outside London in 1839; the way Niffenegger evokes the cemetery’s atmosphere is one of the most compelling aspects of the novel. The cemetery seems to hover over the characters, oppressing them with its brooding, supernatural presence. Questions are raised: Will Elspeth’s human spirit ultimately be released? Or will her psyche be held earthbound, where it will become frustrated, and fester?

If you enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife, you’re certain to fall in love with Her Fearful Symmetry. By any literary measure, this is an extremely readable, compelling book.