Her Fearful Symmetry

I saw this novel by Audrey Niffenegger and had to read it. I loved The Time Traveller's Wife and I was going to London and planning to visit Highgate Cemetery. I thought this would be the perfect book to read while I was there. The book is a ghost story set in and around the cemetery which I set off to visit the last time I was in London but lost my way. When I asked people for directions they all told me they knew where it was but couldn't give me a direct route. I thought that was weird but this time I plotted a map and managed to find it. 

The story opens with the death and funeral of Elspeth Noblin in London. She has bequeathed her London apartment to her twenty-year old twin nieces, Julia and Valentina, who live in the US. Their mother is Elspeth's twin sister but the two have had a fractured relationship and the girls have never met Elspeth. The will stipulates that the twins must live in the apartment for one year and that their parents are not to visit during this period.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which backs on Highgate Cemetery. Living in the same building are Robert, Elspeth's partner, and Martin who is confined to his apartment due to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Robert is a tour guide at the cemetery where his wife is interred in her family vault and he is grieving for her.  Martin is missing his wife Marijke who left him after Elspeth's funeral. The girls watch a lot of tv, explore London and adopt a stray kitten. It becomes clear that Julia and Valentina are abnormally attached to one another - they sleep in the same bed and their lives have always been entwined. They are beautiful and stylish but strange. Valentina has become resentful of Julia's emotional dependency on her. 

Weird events ensue. Elspeth's spirit lives in the flat and communicates with the twins. The story behind the fallout with her sister is revealed. The kitten dies and is brought back to life. And more…

I enjoyed much of the book, especially recognizing the sites I'd so recently seen, including the cemetery. But the storyline veered off in a ridiculous direction and I lost interest. The ending is unsatisfactory. Niffenegger tries to tie it all up too quickly, as if she too had lost interest.