burning bright / In the forests of the night, / What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?".
Given the novel's setting, some critics have also pointed out a potential verbal pun in the novel's title, since in received pronunciation "symmetry" and "cemetery" are quite similarly pronounced.
[4] There is also a physical symmetry between two of the main characters – identical twins with mirrored internal organs.
Her apartment, located beside Highgate cemetery in London, is left for the daughters of Edwina, her estranged twin sister.
Valentina begins falling in love with Robert and he quickly reciprocates, primarily because of her resemblance to Elspeth.
Martin, a man whose wife, Marijke, has left him because of his obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), lives in the apartment above.
Unknown to either of the sisters for the first year they are in London, Elspeth is trapped inside the apartment as a ghost - invisible and completely mute.
As the story progresses, Valentina becomes emotionally stronger and decides she must break away from Julia to be able to live her life.
He finds out that there was no rift between Edwina and Elspeth, but rather a secret they shared that made it impossible for them to be together again: for decades, the two women have been assuming each other's identity.
Thereafter, Elspeth marries Jack, but it was actually Edwina who moved to America with him, and gave birth to Julia and Valentina.
One day, after a run in with Julia who is suspicious but uncertain, "Elspeth" (in Valentina's body) informs Robert that they need to leave London.
"Elspeth" delivers a baby boy and one day, shortly after the child is born, she returns to their little cottage after a walk and discovers that Robert's thesis has been completed and is lying on the table.
[5] In a generally unfavorable review The Guardian commented that "... this is the novelistic equivalent of a cut-rate séance, a parlour game complete with Ouija boards and cheap theatrics, as unconvincing as knuckles rapping under tables.