More of wot I have read…

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

This is a strangely disturbing book where the symbolism of the twins looms large making you question identity, family bonds, individuality, love, desire, compulsion and life and death. I found it a quite captivating, if periodically uncomfortable, read that makes you question elements of human passion.


‘Dearest E,


I told you I would let you know – so here it is – goodbye. I try to imagine what it would feel like if it was you – but it’s impossible to conjure the world without you, even though we’ve been apart so long. I didn’t leave you anything. You got to live my life. That’s enough. Instead I’m experimenting – I’ve left the whole lot to the twins. I hope they’ll enjoy it. Don’t worry, it will be okay. Say goodbye to Jack for me. Love, despite everything, E.


Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal, at least, for identical ‘mirror’ twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cosy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin… …but have no idea that they have been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins’ mother – and who can’t even seem to quite leave her flat…’