Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
25 Rating(s)
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Her Fearful Symmetry

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Narrator: Bianca Amato

Unabridged: 13 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/29/2009


Synopsis

From the author of the #1 bestselling The Time Traveler's Wife, a spectacularly compelling novel—set in and near Highgate Cemetery in London, about the love between twins, men and women, ghosts and the living.

Julia and Valentina Poole are twenty-year-old sisters with an intense attachment to each other. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. Their English aunt Elspeth Noblin has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions for this inheritance: that they live in the flat for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the girls’ aunt Elspeth and their mother, Edie.

The girls move to Elspeth’s flat, which borders the vast Highgate Cemetery, where Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Stella Gibbons, and other luminaries are buried. Julia and Valentina become involved with their living neighbors: Martin, a composer of crossword puzzles who suffers from crippling OCD, and Robert, Elspeth’s elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. They also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including—perhaps—their aunt.

About Audrey Niffenegger

Audrey Niffenegger is a writer and visual artist who lives in Chicago and London. She has published two novels, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, and many illustrated books including The Night Bookmobile and Raven Girl. She is currently at work on The Other Husband, a sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife, which is now an HBO series. 


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Jana on 2009-12-18 14:21:47

I enjoyed this book. I occasionally like to be a little scared and creeped out by a story and this book was just the ticket. The characters were interesting, even though not very endearing. I enjoyed the author's manner of describing people, places, events as the story unfolded. It was not overly complicated- an easy read - but had lots of good food for thought.

AudiobooksNow review by Laurel on 2012-03-18 08:30:25

I think this is a great second book. Its completely different from The Timetravelers Wife, so comparison would be silly. There are a lot of characters and plots that intertwine. I thought it was worth the exposition. The narrator does a nice job.

Goodreads review by Will on April 24, 2024

Her Fearful Symmetry is a Victorian ghost story set in contemporary London, fittingly in and near a graveyard. Elspeth Noblin has died. Neighbor, friend and lover Robert, who is working on a thesis about the cemetery, is bereft. In her will, Elspeth left her apartment and almost all her belongings t......more

Goodreads review by Baba on October 23, 2023

Audrey Niffenegger does it again throwing down innovative storytelling creativity - this one is an incredibly original and delicious tale about twins, isolation, mortality, envy, want and need. A very special tale set in and around a wondrous Highgate cemetery. Not too mention a delightful sub-plot......more

Goodreads review by David Jay on December 11, 2009

This was difficult to put down but I deliberately tried to read slowly beause it was such a pleasure to read. Niffenegger is one of the finest contemporary writers and noone does longing and stymied love better than she does. This book reminded me of "Time Traveler's Wife" as well as "The Lovely Bone......more

Goodreads review by Athira on November 29, 2021

This is a very tricky book to review. I thoroughly enjoyed Her Fearful Symmetry. Having heard plenty of mixed reviews about this one, I wasn't sure how I would find it. On top of that, it was soon due back at the library, and I had 4 other library books calling my name desperately. I needn't have wo......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on October 19, 2009

Like so many other readers, I was enchanted by The Time Traveler’s Wife. There was a willing suspension of disbelief on my part (which goes against my skeptical and cynical nature) but the story was sweet and engaging enough to pull it off. Not so much with Her Fearful Symmetry. Again, through at le......more