Her Fearful Symmetry opens with an ending. Elspeth Noblin, in a hospital bed in the last moments of her life, is flooded with a memory of a moment with her lover, then she dies.

From this point on her struggles in the afterlife begin, first with her watching in curiosity from the ceiling as her lover embraces her lifeless body below. This intertwining of romance and death carry on throughout the novel, set mainly in Elspeth?s London flat beside Highgate Cemetery.

Following Niffenegger?s monster hit novel 'Time Traveler?s Wife', this book explores love, identity and life as a pair through the central characters, the late Elspeth and her
twin Edwina, Edwina?s twin daughters Valentina and Julia, Elspeth?s lover Robert, and a
husband and wife, Martin and Marieke, struggling to cope with his obsessive-compulsive disorder in a neighbouring flat.

Elspeth is now a ghost confined to her flat, and a good part of the book describes how, like a newborn child, her skills and powers develop over time. The mechanics of being a ghost are fun to read -- Elspeth?s haunting abilities need to be honed and refined, rather like humans learning to master life skills. Eventually she finds a way to contact
and communicate with the young twins, as well as her grieving lover Robert, who is also trapped in the flat, figuratively, due to his inability to move on.

One of the main plot drivers is the ways in which the two sets of twins sometimes desperately attempt to escape from each other?s grip, and the extreme, even supernatural lengths they will go to do this.

It?s a fascinating look at power dynamics and control in relationships, yet at times
struggles of the twins in forging their own identity seem overly concocted.

In addition to painting a vivid and absorbing picture of a ghostly existence, the theme
that Niffenegger expresses best in this book is the impossibility of love -- whether they?re apart or together, healthy, loving relationships remain elusive for the characters, yet there?s a sense that it?s still worthwhile to strive for.

Martin, the obsessive-compulsive man expresses it best when he thinks, on the verge of reuniting with his wife, who had left him months before, ?How will we recognise each other, after all that?s happened? How will we manage to realign our realities, which are moving away from us even as we travel towards them? Everything is so fragile, and so glorious.?

In Her Fearful Symmetry, Niffenegger gives us a haunting tableau in which to explore
the great themes of love and death, so it?s a bit of a shame it wasn?t put together in a more coherent, convincing package.

Her Fearful Symmetry
By Audrey Niffenegger
482 pages. Vintage Books.
Price: 420 baht
Available at Bookazine and B2S.