Six years after the phenomenal success of The Time
Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger has returned with a
spectacularly compelling and haunting second novel set in
and around Highgate Cemetery in London.When Elspeth Noblin
dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin
nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never
met their English aunt, only knew that their mother, too,
was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are
semi-normal American teenagers -- with seemingly little
interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their
cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally
intense attachment to one another. The girls move to
Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery in London.
They come to know the building's other residents. There is
Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter
suffering from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder;
Marjike, 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, who can't seem
to leave her old apartment and life behind.Niffenegger
weaves a captivating story in Her Fearful Symmetry about
love and identity, about secrets and sisterhood, and about
the tenacity of life -- even after death.
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