Her Fearful Symmetry

After a summer of silence, I'm back, willing and able to take the City to new and uncharted territories. But first some news that made me go into a delightful frenzy this morning: Audrey Niffenegger is back and more productive that ever! Six year after her spellbinding The Time Traveller's Wife, she brings us Her Fearful Symmetry, a ghost story set in and around Highgate Cemetery in London.

This soon to be contemporary Gothic classic is about a recently deceased woman who ends up haunting her own apartment. Just like The Time Traveller's Wife, Niffenegger has created a wonderful ensemble cast consisting of the woman's lover, her twin nieces who now inhabit the spirited apartment and an upstairs neighbour with severe OCD. Her Fearful Symmetry is an exploration of self, relationships, love, death and everything that makes life worth while. What more could you ask for?

What I love about Niffenegger's work is that she is able to create such vivid and unique characters that will have you rooting for them (not to mention staying up late) until the very end. Even if they aren't that like-able, they will surely have an impact. She also intertwines universal themes and pop culture with such spectacular and wildly original stories that you can't help but be in awe of the her talent.

If that wasn't enough, she has also made a serialised graphic novel for The Guardian, The Night Bookmobile, which will be published in 2010 and her third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile, is being conceived as we speak. Joy!