Time &
again
SheKnows: Can you talk about symmetry in the book — between both sets of sisters, between the love stories and the other characters?
Audrey Niffenegger: I am prone to symmetry (TTW has many paired characters: Clare/Ingrid, Ingrid/Gomez, Gomez/Henry, etc.) and decided to roll with it as the main
organizing structure in HFS. The book is about the coupling and decoupling of all the various pairs of people. Everything is being built up or broken down, nothing is static.
SheKnows: What inspired you to develop the character of Martin with his OCD?
Audrey Niffenegger: Martin was the first character; I once knew someone who had severe OCD, and I wanted to write about it in a way that didn’t reduce the character to the
condition.
SheKnows: How do the sisters — Julia and Valentina — differ in identity? How does each of them find their identity living in their aunt’s flat and near the cemetery?
Audrey Niffenegger: Ah, you’ll have to read the book. I can’t answer that without giving away half the plot.
SheKnows: Do you believe in ghosts or spirits/after life?
Audrey Niffenegger: No, but I think the idea of ghosts is very beautiful.
SheKnows: In your books, love transcends time, place, age, life and death or so it seems?
Audrey Niffenegger: Well, I am not sure that’s quite true. My characters are all eventually subject to time/death etc. The point is that they make the most of what they have,
or they squander it, or they behave in ways that are brave/futile/tragic. Love transcends death because we make art out of it, or because someone is left to remember it.
SheKnows: Tell us about the symmetry between this book and The Time Traveler’s Wife – and differences as well?
Audrey Niffenegger:HFS required more research than the first book, because I don’t live in London and needed to develop knowledge of the city, Highgate Cemetery,
British English, British people…it seemed overwhelming at first, and the writing went very slowly for a while. I spent about five years doing the research. I did not want to write the same book
twice, so I set out to try a different method of writing: instead of first person dual narration, the new book is written in close third, and most of the effects are achieved through shifting point
of view.
SheKnows: Do you feel pressure/nervous about how the book will be received? Do you read what is written about your books?
Audrey Niffenegger: I am occasionally nervous about it, but at this point I know I have done everything I can for the book. I read some reviews. I spent six years in art school
being critiqued, and that helped me to take criticism seriously without placing too much trust in the critics. I always hope to learn.
Audrey on: what’s next
SheKnows: What is the secret life of Audrey Niffenegger? What would readers be surprised to learn about you?
Audrey Niffenegger: I am astonishingly mild-mannered. Clark Kent, c’est moi.
SheKnows: What’s next now that Her Fearful Symmetry is being published soon?
Audrey Niffenegger: I am working on a new novel called The Chinchilla Girl in Exile. It is based on an unpublished short story I wrote in 2004, about a nine-year-old girl
who has hypertrichosis, a condition in which one is covered with hair.
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