2 Generations of Twins, a Family Secret and a Soul Unable to Rest in Peace

As it turns out, "Symmetry" is a highly symmetrical novel built around the architecture of two pairs of twins and two sets of relationship triangles. Elspeth and Edie are the first twins: Elspeth, who lives in London, has a passionate relationship with a younger man named Robert, while Edie, who's moved to America, has a husband named Jack and twin daughters named Valentina and Julia, who have dropped out of college. Elspeth, who dies of cancer, bequeaths her London apartment to her two nieces, but continues to haunt the flat, communicating with the girls and Robert via a Ouija board.

A romantic triangle develops, with Robert torn between Valentina, whom he sees as a sort of reincarnation of Elspeth, and the ghostly Elspeth herself, whom he continues to revere. Meanwhile, Valentina finds herself caught between her attraction to Robert and her bond with her possessive sister, Julia, who is disinclined to let her twin embark on a life of her own.

Meanwhile, a subplot dealing with a neighbor suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder provides a sort of musical counterpoint to the main story line, giving a glimpse of how mightily some people struggle with the most banal activities of daily life.

All this plays out next door to Highgate Cemetery, the Victorian-era London graveyard, where luminaries like Karl Marx, George Eliot and Ralph Richardson are buried. Robert, who works as a guide there, is writing his doctoral thesis on the cemetery and Victorian funerary practices, all of which gives Ms. Niffenegger plenty of opportunities to talk about matters like death, the afterlife, ghosts and the history of London's burial of the dead.