The Three Incestuous Sisters: An Illustrated Novel

I heard Audrey Niffenegger read from this book recently. She also showed some of the artwork. I was hooked and had to order it. I am delighted with the book. It is a dark, strange, and wonderful work of the imagination. Think Tim Burton if he had created an illustrated novel. Note that the text and the pictures work semi-independently of each other.

"The Three Incestuous Sisters" is what author Audrey Niffenegger deems as "a novel in pictures." There is little text in the book, but every spread includes a beautiful full-page illustration that depicts the story of three grown sisters, Bettine, Clothilde, and Ophile. The sisters live together in a secluded house near the sea. When lightning kills the lighthouse keeper, his handsome young son, Paris, arrives to take his place. Paris and Bettine quickly fall in love and conceive a child. Psychic Clothilde communicates with the unborn child, while Ophile is jealous of the union and eventually drives Paris and Bettine out of the house. A confrontation ultimately occurs in the city, where tragedy ensues. Only one sister remains at the house in the end, and she is eventually able to set some things right. I'm a huge fan of "The Time Traveler's Wife," which is why I was so interested in reading this book. "The Three Incestuous Sisters" is NOTHING like Niffenegger's full-length novel, but it stands alone as a beautiful, erotic, and tragic work of art. The illustrations are haunting and tell the story much more than the sparse narrative text. This is a unique art book and a very illuminating story, and I'm thrilled to finally own a copy!

This beautiful book looks like a limited edition artist's book, which is what it was originally. It's filled with large format aquatints (a form of etching) which are gracefully drawn and colored. One can tell from the quality of the lines how much she loved doing this. The publisher did a great job of reproduction, so important in a book of this kind. You can literally cut out the illustrations, frame them, and hang them on your walls as fine art, they're that good. As an illustrated novelist myself I found this book to be inspiring. There is little text, but what there is is poetic and dreamlike, and tells a disturbing but haunting tale of sisterly love and jealousy. It's not a regular novel like her best-seller "The Time Traveler's Wife," which I also loved, but it tells its story mostly in pictures. I highly recommend this for lovers of book art.

I am not huge into art books, but was curious since TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE was one of my favorite books of the last few years. I wanted to see what else the author had in her imagination. I was not disappointed. Audrey Niffenegger is a flat-out genius, an original, a you'll-never-read-anyone-like-her writer. And that she is so fantastically talented as an artist is amazing. This book is beautiful in every way -- the images are beautiful, the production is beautiful, even the story is beautiful. The title makes it sound kind of gross, but it's all metaphorical -- though the events are still eerie and a bit creepy. The three sisters are all distinct, and yet are all in love with the same man. This leads to conflict and tragedy, but as in TIME TRAVELER, Niffenegger finds a way to bring the story back to something really moving and redemptive. This is simply a magical book from a special writer. You'd be an idiot not to recognize her enormous gifts. She'll be doing special things for many years to come.

I love this book......I read it at the store and had to have it. The illustrations are beautiful, insightful and very well done. I am mainly writing this in response to the last reviewer and could not believe what ignorant things they had to say. A child could not do these illustrations, and I am very sorry this person missed the entire point of the book. The book is an experience, the size is perfect. Spend some time with it. Its a bit like a silent film. Its similar to the work of Edward Gorey and Gustav Klimt. Anyone who appreciates simplicity, poetry, art and illustration art will love it.