Audrey
Niffenegger is a 21st century
Renaissance woman – an exceptionally creative
writer and visual artist who has achieved enormous
success in both worlds. Her highly acclaimed debut novel, THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, has sold more than four million copies and
has been translated into thirty-three languages
to date. The film version will be released
in August 2009.
Niffenegger is also the author of
two “novels-in-pictures,” THE THREE INCESTUOUS SISTERS and THE ADVENTURESS. The Gothic
mood of her original artwork has led some to compare
it to the work of Aubrey
Beardsley and Edward
Gorey.
A Chicago native, Niffenegger received
her MFA in Printmaking and Drawing from Northwestern
University. Her art has been widely exhibited in
the United States and is in the permanent collections
of the Library of Congress and Harvard University’s
Houghton Library. She has remained with her
original gallery, PrintWorks,
for almost two decades.
She is a professor in the Interdisciplinary
Book Arts MFA Program at the Columbia
College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts.
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 cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her amazing flat in a building by Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin... but have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the OCD-suffering crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below, and to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the mother of the girls – her own twin – and who can’t even seem to quite leave her flat....
HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY, Audrey Niffenegger’s second novel, is a delicious and deadly 21st-century ghost story certain to satisfy the millions of fans of her phenomenal first novel, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, and cement her standing as one of the most imaginative writers of our time. Readers who fell in love with THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE will find the same gifts on ample display: provocative ideas, brilliantly rendered characters, elegant prose pulsing with wit and style, and a deeply affecting tale of love lost and won, and the consequences of getting what you want. She is a talent unlike any other.
Publishers Weekly (starred review): "Highly original... a soaring
love story illuminated by dozens of finely observed details and scenes... It
is a fair tribute to [Niffenegger's] skill and sensibility to say that the book
leaves a reader with an impression of life's riches and strangeness rather than
of easy thrills."
People (Critic's Choice): "A
powerfully original love story."
Denver Post: "Niffenegger's beautiful prose and sure-handed way with character development
lifts THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE beyond the realm of romantic potboilers and into
the mainstream of literature that will last."
Booklist (starred
review): “Niffenegger's grim yet erotic tale
and stunningly moody gothic prints possess
the sly subversion of Edward Gorey, the emotional
valence of Edvard Munch, and her very own brilliant
use of iconographic pattern, surprising perspective,
and tensile line in the service of a delectable,
otherworldly sensibility.”
BBC:
“An object to be treasured and a story which
unfolds like a play - or, as the author says,
“a silent film made from Japanese prints.” The
Three Incestuous Sisters is an affecting
addition to the picture-book genre.”
Fantastic Fiction: “Reminiscent
of the gothic style of Edward Gorey, Niffenegger's
visually stunning narrative affirms her genius
as a storyteller… Haunting illustrations
and lyrical prose depict a timeless tale
of love, revenge, and ultimately, transcendence.”
Fantastic
Fiction: "This gothic romance packs
the emotional heft of the world's great fairy
tales. It will delight fans of the author's
previous works and enchant an entirely new
legion of readers."
