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Description
Six years after the phenomenal success of The Time Traveler's Wife , Audrey Niffenegger has returned with a spectacularly compelling and haunting second novel set in and around Highgate Cemetery in London. When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin... read more
Cast of Characters/Important People
- Elspeth Noblin: Add a description of this character.
- Robert Fanshaw: Elspeth's lover and downstairs neighbor.
- Edwina and Jack Poole: Estranged twin sister to Elspeth and mother and father of the twins, Valentina and Julia Poole.
- Valentina and Julia Poole: The primary protagonists, identical twin sisters, nieces of Elspeth, and daughters of Edie. Valentina is nicknamed "Mouse" because she is more submissive than Julia.
- Martin and Marijke Wells de Graaf: The upstairs neighbor to Elspeth. Martin suffers from a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and Marijke is the "devoted but trapped" wife.
- Jessica and James Bates: Jessica is the Chairman of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery and Robert's supervisor. James is Jessica's husband and the cemetery's archivist.
Memorable Quotes
-
“There are several ways to react to being lost. One is to panic: this was usually Valentina's first impulse. Another is to abandon yourself to lostness, to allow the fact that you've misplaced yourself to change the way you experience the world.”
First Sentence
Elspeth died while Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small plastic cup.
Table of Contents
Part One
1. The End
2. Last letter
3. A flower of the field
4. She's leaving home
5. February
6. The mirror twins
7. Bleach
8. Night in Highgate Cemetery
9. Sunday afternoon
10. The history of her ghost
11. The violet dress
12. Boxing Day
13. New Year's Day
Part Two
14. The mirror twins
15. Mr. Roche
16. The upstairs neighbour
17. Stalking
18. Sick day
19. Valentina and Julia underground
20. A deluge
21. The delicate thing
22. Pearls
23. Her electrical nature
24. Squirrels
25. Primrose Hill
26. The little kitten of death
27. A tour of Highgate Cemetery
28. Breathe
29. The diaries of Elspeth Noblin
30. Birthday greetings
31. Postman's Park
32. Squirrels in human form
33. Breathe
34. Vitamins
35. Birthday
36. Ghostwriting
Part Three
37. Liminal
38. Home dentistry
39. Strays
40. Nine lives
41. Spring fever
42. Coming apart at the seams
43. A proposition
44. Counting
45. Test
46. The funeral of the little kitten of death
47. He comes undone
48. Anticipations
49. Resurrection day
50. Last call
51. Caught out
52. Vitamins
53. Pas de trois
54. Resurrection day
55. Departures
56. The end of the diaries
57. Redux
58. Visit
59. Encounters, evasions, detections
60. The end
Authors & Contributors
- Audrey Niffenegger (Author)
Awards
- Amazon.com's Best Books (2009: Editors' Picks, #77)
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