Her Fearful Symmetry

“Her Fearful Symmetry” is a novel written by Audrey Niffenegger, who also wrote “The Time Traveler’s Wife” which became a global bestseller and won several prizes including “British Book Award”.

It is told by a 3rd person narrator, and the point of view changes between the different characters in the book.
The story mainly takes place in a block of flats in London.
A woman called Elspeth lived in one of the flats, until she died of leukemia. Elspeth was a self-centered woman, who always got what she wanted. And even after her death that did not change. As a ghost, Elspeth is stuck in her old flat without any way of communicating. But eventually after long time, she finds a way to get in touch with her nieces and her old lover, Robert.
When Elspeth died, she left all of her belongings, including the flat, to her twin sister’s twin daughters, Julia and Valentina. This surprised everyone, as Elspeth and her sister, Edie, had not spoken with each other for twenty years. We later realize out that the twins switched identities, because when Edie, who actually was called Elspeth, was engaged to her husband, Jack, he started to be flirtatious towards Elspeth, who was Edie at the time. So they started to impersonate each other to test him. But even though Jack knew they had switched, he played along and fell in love with “Edie” and broke off the engagement with Elspeth and asked “Edie” to marry him. But in the meantime Elspeth had slept with Jack and was pregnant with the twins, so she moved in with him and raised the twins, though it was Edie he had married. When the twins were about four months old, they switched back and Edie came to live with Jack. But Elspeth was actually the real mother of Valentina and Julia.

Valentina and Julia are identical twins, w ho are inseparable and do everything together. Julia is the more dominant twin and sort of decides what she and Valentina should do with their lives. Julia never gets sick and always feels the need to protect Valentina, who suffers from asthma and sometimes gets severe asthma attacks.
After spending her whole life doing what Julia wants to do and feeling like being only half of a person, she tries to separate herself from Julia, for example by wearing different clothes than Julia in outfits Julia cannot match.
“I want my own life. I want privacy! I’m sick of being half a person.” (p. 207 l. 26-27)
After spending a short time in London, Valentina falls in love with Robert, and they start dating. This does not thrill Julia, because she wants Valentina all by herself. “Robert glanced up just as Julia poked her head into the hallway. She scowled at him and closed the door.” (p. 201 l. 2-3)
In order to separate herself from Julia, Valentina came up with a plan, which involved Elspeth taking her soul out of her body, and make everyone believe that she is dead. After her funeral, Elspeth should then put her back in her own body, so she could begin a life without Julia in it.

Robert lives in the bottom flat. Robert used to date Elspeth, whom he thought was the love of his life. After she died his life seemed meaningless to him. But after meeting the twins and falling for Valentina, initially because of the resemblance between her and Elspeth, he starts to regain meaning in his life.

In the flat above the twins, a middle-aged man called Martin lives. Martin suffers from severe OCD, and his untreated sickness forces his wife, Marijke, to leave him. Martin’s illness gets so extreme that he cannot leave the apartment. All the windows are blocked with newspapers, he has to shower for at least two hours in the morning and counts in order to make up for something bad that he should not do according to his own rules etc.
Martin desperately wants to get better, so he can go and visit Marijke and get her back. And after he meets Julia, who tricks him into taking medicine for his illness, he starts to feel better and feel less need to count all the times.

A theme in this novel is that there is focus on the relations between pairs of people. We have Edie and Elspeth, who are twins. Edie and Jack, is a married couple, who are the parents of Julia and Valentina. Elspeth and Robert are lovers. Julia and Valentina is very close to each other and do everything together and Martin and Marijke is married. The longer you get in the story, it is made obvious that Robert and Valentina falls in love with each other and makes a couple as well.
Robert falls in love with Valentina, who looks very much alike Elspeth, but has a very different personality. Valentina is not selfish, but a very sweet girl, where Elspeth is cunning and manipulative. When Elspeth kills Valentina, who is actually her daughter, and takes over her body instead of putting Valentina back, Robert finds out how manipulative and selfish she really is. And when she wants her and Robert to move to Sussex, where there is less risk for running into Julia, who might recognize her sisters body, he finds out that it has been her plan to move all along: “That’s how you do it, he thought. I never realised it before.” (p. 378 l. 16)
He then realizes that he cannot be with Elspeth or ever forgive her for the fact that Valentina is dead because of her. So in the end Robert leaves Elspeth and never comes back.
It is interesting to see how Robert was so sure that Elspeth was his big true love and is devastated when she dies, but in the end finds himself leaving her and being in love with another girl.

A second theme is that there are crucial problems in most of the couples’ relationships. Each couple has problems that complicate and hinder their ability to live their lives the way they want to. In the case of Marijke and Martin, his illness obstruct him from living a normal life, where he would be able leave his apartment, and Marijke could no longer put up with that. When it comes to Valentina and Julia, there is a conflict between the fact that Valentina wants to be in control of her own life, when Julia wants her and Valentina to have a life together, where Julia makes all the decisions for both of them. This leads to Valentina making the drastic decision to plan her own death and secret resurrection that ends fatally.
Edie and Elspeth swapped identities and in order not to be caught, they cannot meet for the rest of their lives. This deceit casts a shadow over the marriage of Edie and Jack, because both of them know that they have a secret that is never spoken of.
Robert had the apparently perfect relationship with Elspeth before she died. In the end he gets her back after she took over Valentina’s body. But her selfish and cruel act to take her own child’s life makes it impossible for Robert to love her in the end even though he got what he wanted. “I suppose you could say that you got what you wished for, said Jessica. That’s the worst punishment, said Robert. I would undo everything if I could.” (p. 379 l. 18-21)

A third theme is love and sacrifice.
Edie and Elspeth switch identities in order to enable Edie to be with the man she loves. They sacrifice their own relationship for Edie’s love, and the price was high. They could never see each other again.
Elspeth goes to the extremes to reunite her and Robert and get Robert away from Valentina.
Elspeth got angry with Robert showing interest towards Valentina, when she wanted him all to herself, so she made the decision to take over Valentina’s body.
“Robert and Valentina always came back late, and whispered together in the hallway. Elspeth hardened her heart.” (p. 308 l. 19-20)

The novel is a modern ghost story with the themes love, identity, grief, secrets, sisterhood, life and death told through the lives of various couples crossing each other’s lives.