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Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry and Probate

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

I enjoyed Audrey Niffenegger's first novel, The Time Traveler's Wife. Haven't seen the movie -- looks a little too sappy -- but the book was great.

Right now I'm working on Ms. Niffenegger's newest, entitled Her Fearful Symmetry. I've just started it, but the novel appears to be a riff on the old idea of "stay in a haunted house overnight to get an inheritance." Two American twenty-somethings (twins) get the following letter (which I have edited) from the attorney for their English aunt, who has passed away:

Dear Julia and Valentina Poole,

I regret to inform you of the death of your aunt, Elspeth Alice Noblin.... Last September, knowing that her illness would soon result in her death, she made a new will. I am enclosing a copy of this document. You are her residuary legatees; that is, she has bequeathed you her entire estate, with the exception of a few minor bequests to friends and charities. You will receive this inheritance when you reach the age of twenty-one.

The bequest is given to you with the following conditions:

1) Ms. Noblin owned an apartment in London.... She bequeathed this apartment to you on the condition that you both live in it for one year before you may sell it.

2) The entire bequest is given on the condition that no part of it shall be used to benefit Ms. Noblin's [twin] sister, Edwina, or Edwina's husband, Jack (your parents). Also, Edwina and Jack Poole are forbidden to set foot in the flat or inspect its contents.

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on December 29, 2009 (boomark / email).