'Three Incestuous Sisters' by Audrey Niffenegger: Wonderful...and Weird

Audrey Niffenegger burst on to the literary scene in 2004 with her occasionally lyrical, thoroughly romantic novel, ‘The Time Traveler's Wife.' Her eagerly awaited sophomore effort, ‘The Three Incestuous Sisters' (Henry N. Abrams, 2005), seems like something completely different, but Niffenegger actually calls this "the book of my heart, a fourteen-year labor of love." While ‘The Time Traveler's Wife' won world-wide praise, Niffenegger was working carefully to perfect ‘The Three Incestuous Sisters.'

With a title like that, the book is bound to be strange, which it is. Even as a physical object, it's a rarity among books for grown-ups. Subtitled "an illustrated novel," ‘Sisters' could also accurately be described as a picture book for adults of oddball, slightly grotesque sensibilities. The elliptical story text appears on the left page, while each righthand page shows a melancholy aquatint. Done by Niffenegger, the somber illustrations elaborate on - and frequently overtake - the bare-bones plot. Heavier than a laptop and much more engrossing, ‘Sisters' is something to balance on your knees and enjoy.

‘Sisters' possesses a minimalist storyline that's as unusual as its packagin. There are three sisters: Bettine, the luminous blonde; the mystical and blue-haired middle child, Clothilde; and the dreary black-haired eldest, Ophile. They live in coastal isolation worthy of Emily Dickinson until Bettine falls in love with Paris the lighthouse keeper's son. Ophile goes nearly insane with envy, while Clothilde magically mentors her unborn nephew, the Saint (which, in case you're worried, is as close as we get to the incest referred to in the title). When Ophile's jealousy leads to Bettine's death, the green-skinned Saint is picked up by a traveling carnival. More loss, grief and high drama ensue before the Saint finds his way back to his ancestral home.