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(HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY BY NIFFENEGGER, AUDREY)Her Fearful Symmetry[Paperback] ON 29-Jun-2010 (edition 2010)

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6,9654681,312 (3.38)359
When Elspeth Noblin dies, she leaves everything to the 20-year-old American twin daughters of her own long-estranged twin, Edie. Valentina and Julia, as enmeshed as Elspeth and Edie once were, move into Elspeth's London flat and through a series of developing relationships a crisis develops that could pull the twins apart.… (more)
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Title:(HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY BY NIFFENEGGER, AUDREY)Her Fearful Symmetry[Paperback] ON 29-Jun-2010
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Info:Scribner Book Company (2010), Paperback
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Work Information

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

  1. 152
    The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (obscurelens, sruszala, lahochstetler)
    obscurelens: Story about twins and ghosts. Darker than Her Fearful Symmetry, but I think it's far better than this.
    lahochstetler: Gothic tales of devoted twin sisters, love, and death.
  2. 91
    Highgate Cemetery: Victorian Valhalla by Felix Barker (lilithcat)
    lilithcat: For those who wish to know more about this book's setting, I highly recommend Barker's. It includes an essay on the history of Highgate, one on well-known burials, and has a section of wonderful photographs. Highgate is very unlike the manicured, geometrically laid-out modern cemeteries, and, if those are the only ones with which you are familiar, Barker gives you a sense of the atmosphere this young American women encountered.… (more)
  3. 51
    The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (heidialice)
    heidialice: If you couldn't get enough of Martin and Marijke, or were hoping for a something a bit more like "The Time Traveler's Wife" try "The Gargoyle".
  4. 96
    The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Cecilturtle, krizia_lazaro)
  5. 20
    A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb (wegc)
    wegc: Both books are from the point of view of a ghost interacting with the real world, wanting love.
  6. 20
    The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb (VictoriaPL)
  7. 20
    The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue (cataylor)
    cataylor: Both books deal with a spirit trapped in the afterlife who observe the living.
  8. 54
    The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (heidialice, Othemts)
    heidialice: Similar in setting, and both ghost stories, these are very different books, but fans of one should be interested in the other.
  9. 32
    A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle (Ciruelo)
    Ciruelo: Both feature a single man with a devoted attachment to a graveyard and its restless ghost.
  10. 10
    Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon (Ciruelo)
  11. 00
    Soulmates by Miranda Glover (HollyMS)
  12. 00
    Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier (KayCliff)
    KayCliff: Both novels feature Highgate Cemetery.
  13. 00
    Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood (becksdakex)
    becksdakex: Death, family, ghosts.
  14. 00
    The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (sturlington)
  15. 00
    Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers (Othemts)
  16. 00
    26a by Diana Evans (terran)
  17. 01
    The River King by Alice Hoffman (Miranda_Paige)
  18. 01
    The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman (Miranda_Paige)
  19. 01
    A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine (KayCliff)
    KayCliff: Both books are about devoted sisters whose relationship turns sour with deadly results.
  20. 24
    The Other by Thomas Tryon (Ciruelo)

(see all 21 recommendations)

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» See also 359 mentions

English (455)  Dutch (4)  German (2)  Spanish (1)  Croatian (1)  Hungarian (1)  French (1)  All languages (465)
Showing 1-5 of 455 (next | show all)
This novel starts and maintains a level of normalcy and maintains it throughout although it gets quite bizarre with ghosts haunting the apartment and tv and kittens getting killed…
But the best part is Martin with his crippling OCD and love for his wife Marijke and his vow to leave his apt and travel to her in Amsterdam. ( )
  Smits | Mar 16, 2024 |
Family Drama
  BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
Story: 6 / 10
Characters: 8
Setting: 7
Prose: 7 ( )
  MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |
I think this book might, might, might be a 4.75 instead of a 5, but then again, I might be judging it too harshly since her first book (the Time Traveler's Wife) is so perfect and lovely. You see, I think this is a nearly perfect book too, but I'm not sure I loved it in quite the same way as the other. I can't imagine how these stories unfold in her mind, because they are so intricate and so dependent on minutiae that it seems almost impossible to write such a book so flawlessly. My only criticism would be that I came to care for the characters only late in the book (maybe 100 pages in), meaning that I got to spend less time with them than I would have liked after I really cared about them and understood each one's point of view. I must give serious points for controlled creepiness; there are parts of this book that are downright terrifying, except that somehow the events described seem logical and normal at the same time. I will certainly re-read this one, as I have re-read her other one so many, happy times. ( )
  nogomu | Oct 19, 2023 |
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 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.

This is a tough book to review without giving too much away, so this will be a short review!

Quicker read than I thought this was going to be, this is not a repeat of the Time Traveller's wife. It's a straight linear narrative of Elspeth dying, leaving her flat to her twin nieces (one literally the mirror image of the other) and what happens over the next year when they come from the US to stay.

Highgate Cemetery makes a great "guest billing". The OCD neighbour upstairs seems to accept new people in his apartment a little to easily (especially since his wife of 20 years has just left him because of his compulsions) but on the whole it's an enjoyable book if I found it a less heart wrenching book the TTTW.
  nordie | Oct 14, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 455 (next | show all)
Niffenegger’s story is written with a lightness of touch and with a great eye for the oddities of human behaviour.
 
Niffenegger has always identified loss as her main subject, but here at least it’s dissolution: the grim inevitability of decay. The theme of doubleness feeds into this. Valentina wants to break free of the controlling Julia and live her own life, but can she survive without her? Forced togetherness, the “fearful symmetry” of the title, can lead to a diminution of individual identity, a merging of personalities. Sometimes apartness is preferable.
added by riverwillow | editThe Times, John O'Connell (Oct 10, 2009)
 
Instead of fabricating ghosts and faux-Englishmen, it's a shame that Niffeneggers didn't just cut away all the cobwebby Halloween trappings and write a moving, realistic story about a man with OCD who is trapped for real, rather than ersatz, reasons in a flat overlooking a cemetery. She sustains a mood, but it is vaguely repellent, rather than enjoyably disquieting. Instead of a lingering, unforgettable ghost story, this is the novelistic equivalent of a cut-rate séance, a parlour game complete with Ouija boards and cheap theatrics, as unconvincing as knuckles rapping under tables
 
Niffenegger is an extraordinarily sensitive and accomplished writer, and Her Fearful Symmetry is a work of lovely delicacy... But Her Fearful Symmetry is not a book of great emotional force, not the way Time Traveler's Wife was.
added by Shortride | editTime, Lev Grossman (Oct 5, 2009)
 
Mysteries and truths slowly unravel as the story progresses. The major plot resolves predictably, but its grim inevitability fits well with the genre, and a few more surprising twists produce an even more satisfying read than Niffenegger’s bestselling debut.
 

» Add other authors (37 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Audrey Niffeneggerprimary authorall editionscalculated
Amato, BiancaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Korhonen, PaulaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sheckels, JenCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
She said, "I know what it's like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad."
And she's making me feel like I've never been born.
—The Beatles
Dedication
For Jean Pateman, with love
First words
Elspeth died while Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small paper cup.
Quotations
As a historian he knew that any trove of documents has incendiary potential. So the boxes sat like unexploded ordinance on the floor of his bedroom and Robert did his best to ignore them.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
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Wikipedia in English (2)

When Elspeth Noblin dies, she leaves everything to the 20-year-old American twin daughters of her own long-estranged twin, Edie. Valentina and Julia, as enmeshed as Elspeth and Edie once were, move into Elspeth's London flat and through a series of developing relationships a crisis develops that could pull the twins apart.

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Book description
A compelling novel about love and the power of life. Thetwins Julia and Valentina have an abnormally strong mutualband. On one day they get a letter from a British lawyer. Their auntElspeth Noblin, who they never met, is deceased and let herLondon apartment after her nichtjes.Nadat them from their surpriseare obtained, the girls decide to seize this opportunity for adventure andElspeth move to beautiful apartment, overlooking the Highgatecemetery in London. They learn the other occupants of the buildingknow, including Robert, the lover of their deceased Aunt Elspeth, whoall about the cemetery seems to know. Along, the girlsthat there is much life on Highgate. Especially their aunt seems her earthly life not to leave behind

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Een meeslepende roman over liefde en de kracht van het leven. De tweelingzusjes Julia en Valentina hebben een abnormaal sterke onderlinge band. Op een dag krijgen ze een brief van een Engelse advocaat. Hun tante Elspeth Noblin, die ze nooit ontmoet hebben, is overleden en laat haar Londense appartement na aan haar nichtjes.Nadat ze van hun verbazing bekomen zijn, besluiten de meisjes deze kans op avontuur te grijpen en te verhuizen naar Elspeths prachtige flat, die uitkijkt op de Highgate begraafplaats in Londen. Ze leren de andere bewoners van het gebouw kennen, onder wie Robert, de minnaar van hun overleden tante Elspeth, die alles over de begraafplaats lijkt te weten. Gaandeweg ontdekken de meisjes dat er nog veel leven is op Highgate. Vooral hun tante lijkt haar aardse leven niet goed achter zich te kunnen laten
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