About the Author

Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and writer who lives mostly in Chicago and occasionally in London. She has published six books, including the novels The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry. She helped to found the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. Her art has been exhibited by Printworks Gallery in Chicago since 1986. She is a Professor in the Fiction Department of Columbia College. Her recent projects include a ballet, Raven Girl, in collaboration with Wayne McGregor for the Royal Opera House Ballet.

Reviews

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"An engrossing read by someone who really knows how to keep a story rolling. . . . she makes us really care about her characters, but it's her storytelling chops that make Her Fearful Symmetry a winner."
-- "NOW" (Toronto)
"[An] awesomely good read."
-- "Chatelaine
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"Quirkily observed and rich on every level: plot, character, mood and theme. . . . She conjures a memorable world, and grants most of her characters happy endings, though perhaps not the ones they would have asked for."
-- "The Globe and Mail
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"Entertaining. . . . The reader is pleasantly carried along by the author's ability to create credible characters and her instinctive narrative gifts. . . . The most powerful parts of Her Fearful Symmetry . . . deal not with paranormal events but with the ordinary pleasures and frustrations of life."
-- "The New York Times
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"Niffenegger deftly creates and maintains suspense. . . . Niffenegger has created a startling cast of characters whose eccentricities make them both more memorable and more believable."
-- "The Gazette
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"A modern Victorian novel revolving around a London cemetery, ghostly hauntings and a well-kept secret. . . . A bewitching modern-gothic tale that is at once unsettling and intriguing."
-- "Chicago Sun-Times
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"Talk about time travel: The novel blends the history of London's famed Highgate Cemetery, the remarkable phenomena of mirror-image twins and the question of life after death into a ghost story that feels as if it could have been written a century ago."
-- "National Post
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"Odd and disturbing but intensely mesmerizing and memorable. . . . Niffenegger spins such a riveting story -- just like she did in The Time Traveler's Wife -- that suspending disbelief is a pleasure. . . . Niffenegger's writing is bewitching. . . . Niffenegger delivers with great skill a chilling and haunting story."
-- "The Miami Herald
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"Vivid prose. . . . Perverse f

Elspeth Noblin has died of cancer and has left her London apartment to her estranged twin sister Edie's twin daughters, college-aged Julia and Valentina-with the provision that Edie never set foot in the apartment. The twins, unworldly, petite, and blonde (and oddly reminiscent of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen), claim their inheritance and meet their obsessive-compulsive neighbor, Martin, and Robert, Elspeth's shy, younger lover, who is writing a book about Highgate Cemetery (Elspeth's resting place). They eventually encounter Elspeth herself-though not, of course, in the flesh. Things take a sinister turn when their aunt plays a very nasty trick on Valentina that leaves her out of the picture, forever. Verdict The plot is unrealistic but could have been much more believable; the writing seems touched by the naOvete that radiates from the young twins. A puzzling book, like a Gorey drawing gone really icky. Fantasy lovers and lovers of The Time Traveler's Wife will want to consider. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/09.]-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.