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Книги Audrey Niffenegger
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«Mirror-image twins Julia and Valentina seem to be going nowhere in life, in this second novel from the author of The Time Traveler's Wife, until a packet arrives at their Chicago home. Their aunt Elspeth — their mother's twin, whom they never knew — has died and left them her London flat. Once there, the girls find their aunt's obsessive-compulsive neighbor Martin, who writes crossword puzzles, and her grief-stricken lover Robert, who is writing a history of next-door Highgate Cemetery. Then they meet Elpseth herself, now a disembodied spirit, and find that she is still very much a part of the living world. Audrey Niffenegger's deliciously gothic ghost tale is full of obsessive and possessive loves, exchanged lives and traded souls. «The endurance of love animates this gothic story set in and around Highgate Cemetery, in London. When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her estate, including an apartment overlooking the graveyard, to the twin daughters of her twin sister, from whom she has been estranged for twenty years... Audrey Niffenegger has a knack for taking the romantic into the realm of creepiness, and she constructs a taut mystery around the secrets to be found in Elspeth's diaries and the lengths to which she will go to reunite with her younger lover. It's no small achievement that the revelations are both organic and completely unexpected».» |
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«This clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with «Chrono Displacement» disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From his point of view, he first met his wife, Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she'd known him all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time travelling to Clare's childhood and meeting her as a 6-year-old. The book alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view, and so does the narration. Reed ably expresses the longing of the one always left behind, the frustrations of their unusual lifestyle, and above all, her overriding love for Henry. Likewise, Burns evokes the fear of a man who never knows where or when he'll turn up, and his gratitude at having Clare, whose love is his anchor. The expressive, evocative performances of both actors convey the protagonists' intense relationship, their personal quirks and their reminiscences, making this a fascinating audio.» |
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