Piranesi
A man at home among tides and marble
He keeps a journal in an endless house of halls and statues, and believes the world is kind. The less you know about him, the better the visit.
Meet them in Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Meet the people
Character cards, no spoilers
A first introduction to the people who make these books worth opening. Screenshot a card, print a set, or send someone the person they are about to meet.
Nothing here gives away the plot. On mobile, screenshot one card at a time for the cleanest crop.
From Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
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O
The Other
The only other person he sees
He arrives twice a week, always in a hurry, always with questions. His visits are the first crack in a world that seemed complete.
Meet them in Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
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From The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
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S
Stevens
An English butler of perfect service
He has spent a lifetime getting every detail right. A motoring holiday is the first time he allows himself to look back.
Meet them in The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
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MK
Miss Kenton
The housekeeper who would not stay silent
She ran Darlington Hall with as much care as Stevens, and rather more feeling. A letter from her is what finally gets him into the car.
Meet them in The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
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From Circe by Madeline Miller
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C
Circe
A witch in exile
The gods call her lesser and send her to a remote island. She uses the solitude to become someone they cannot dismiss.
Meet them in Circe by Madeline Miller
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From The Secret History by Donna Tartt
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RP
Richard Papen
A transfer student who wants in
He arrives at a small Vermont college hungry for beauty and belonging. A clique of classics students lets him close enough to see the cost.
Meet them in The Secret History by Donna Tartt
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HW
Henry Winter
The student the others orbit
Brilliant, remote, and certain of his own taste. If you have ever wanted to be chosen by the most serious person in the room, you will understand Richard at once.
Meet them in The Secret History by Donna Tartt
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From Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
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KR
Kirsten Raymonde
An actress on the road
Years after the world thinned out, she still performs Shakespeare for whoever is left. A comic book in her pack is the thread back to the life before.
Meet them in Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
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AL
Arthur Leander
A famous actor on opening night
The novel finds him under the lights in Toronto, playing Lear. The people he loved keep colliding long after that evening ends.
Meet them in Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
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From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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EB
Elizabeth Bennet
The sister who will not be managed
Quick, amused, and unwilling to marry for convenience. She is the reason this comedy of manners still feels like a dare.
Meet them in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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FD
Fitzwilliam Darcy
A man who makes a terrible first impression
Proud, rich, and immediately disliked at the assembly. The pleasure of the book is watching him become someone worth knowing.
Meet them in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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From The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
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WB
William of Baskerville
A Franciscan with a detective's eye
He arrives at a mountain abbey in 1327 and cannot leave a puzzle unexamined. The library is a labyrinth. So is the faith around it.
Meet them in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
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AM
Adso of Melk
The novice who tells the tale
Young, observant, and not yet sure what he believes. He follows William through the abbey and writes it down years later.
Meet them in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
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From A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
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CR
Count Alexander Rostov
A gentleman under house arrest
In 1922 he is confined to the Metropol Hotel and told the city is no longer his. He answers by building a life inside the walls.
Meet them in A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
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NK
Nina Kulikova
A child who knows every corridor
She treats the hotel as her kingdom and the Count as a fellow conspirator. A passkey and a curious mind open more rooms than the staff intend.
Meet them in A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
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From Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
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S
Sunja
The daughter who starts a dynasty
A Korean girl in a fishing village makes one choice that sends her family across the sea. What follows is four generations of stubborn love.
Meet them in Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
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From The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
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GA
Genly Ai
An envoy on a frozen world
He has come to invite a planet into a wider civilization. First he has to understand a people who do not divide themselves the way he does.
Meet them in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
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TE
Therem Harth rem ir Estraven
The ally he does not yet trust
A politician of Gethen, careful and hard to read. The book is the slow work of two people learning how to be loyal across a gulf.
Meet them in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
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From Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
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SW
The second Mrs de Winter
A young bride with no name of her own
She arrives at Manderley already unsure she belongs. The house, and everyone in it, still belongs to someone else.
Meet them in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
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MD
Mrs Danvers
The housekeeper who keeps the first wife present
She runs Manderley as if the new marriage were a trespass. One of the great unsettling figures in English fiction.
Meet them in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
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From Educated by Tara Westover
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TW
Tara Westover
A daughter who teaches herself out
Raised in a survivalist household in Idaho, she has almost no schooling and a fierce hunger to know. The classroom is only the beginning of the cost.
Meet them in Educated by Tara Westover
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From The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
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JD
Joan Didion
A writer keeping the year in view
After her husband's sudden death she writes with the same precision she brought to everything else. Grief, in her hands, becomes a kind of report.
Meet them in The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
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From Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
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TC
Thomas Cromwell
A blacksmith's son at court
He has a memory for ledgers, people and danger. Henry VIII's England has never felt this close to the ground.
Meet them in Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
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From The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
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BB
Bilbo Baggins
A hobbit who liked his pantry
He wanted a quiet life and a second breakfast. Thirteen dwarves and a wizard have other plans for his front door.
Meet them in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
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G
Gandalf
The wizard who knocks
He has a habit of sending comfortable people on uncomfortable journeys. The mark he leaves on the door is only the start.
Meet them in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
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From Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
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JA
John Ames
An Iowa minister writing to his son
He is old, newly a father, and trying to leave a life on paper. The letter becomes a meditation on grace and ordinary light.
Meet them in Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
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From The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
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EB
Elizabeth Best
A retiree with a professional past
She organizes the Thursday meetings and knows more than she says. Coopers Chase has never been as peaceful as it looks.
Meet them in The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
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JM
Joyce Meadowcroft
The newcomer with a diary and a camera
She joined the village for a quieter life and found a murder club instead. Her notes are half gossip, half detective work, and all charm.
Meet them in The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
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From Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
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RG
Ryland Grace
An astronaut who wakes alone
He has no memory and a ship full of problems. Meeting him is the joy of watching a good mind start from zero.
Meet them in Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
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From Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
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MZ
Michelle Zauner
A musician at the grocery store
In the aisles of H Mart she finds her mother again, through food and the Korean she is still learning to hold. Grief here tastes like home cooking.
Meet them in Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
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From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
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JE
Jane Eyre
A governess who will not be small
Plain, poor, and fiercely her own. Thornfield Hall offers work, a fire in the library, and a man who underestimates her.
Meet them in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
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ER
Edward Rochester
The master of Thornfield
Abrupt, restless, and better company than he first appears. The house around him has a secret he is not ready to share.
Meet them in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
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From Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
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K
Klara
An Artificial Friend in the shop window
She watches the street and studies the sun as if it were a god. Chosen by a family, she sets out to learn what love requires.
Meet them in Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
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From Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
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SG
Sadie Green
A game designer with a vision
She meets Sam in a hospital games room as a child. Years later they build worlds together, and the partnership is the love story.
Meet them in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
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SM
Sam Masur
The friend who never quite leaves
Wounded, funny, and devoted to the work they make. If you have ever had one person who is not a romance and still the center of your life, start here.
Meet them in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
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From The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
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CB
Celia Bowen
A magician raised for a contest
Her father trains her as if wonder were a weapon. The circus that appears without warning is the stage she did not choose.
Meet them in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
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MA
Marco Alisdair
The other half of the wager
He works in ledgers and ink, and in a magic the audience never sees. He and Celia are bound to a game whose rules they were not told.
Meet them in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
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From The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
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EG
Eve Gardiner
A former spy who wants to be left alone
In 1947 she is angry, armed, and done with being useful. A young American at the door pulls her back toward the war she survived.
Meet them in The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
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CC
Charlie St. Clair
A pregnant college girl looking for her cousin
She has been sent to Europe to make a problem disappear. Instead she starts asking questions no one wants answered.
Meet them in The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
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From The Martian by Andy Weir
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MW
Mark Watney
The astronaut left on Mars
He is a botanist with a sharp sense of humour and a long list of problems. You will root for him one potato at a time.
Meet them in The Martian by Andy Weir
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From Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
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WK
William Kane
A Boston banker's heir
Born into privilege on the same day as a stranger an ocean away. Ambition, not chance, is what will bring their lives together.
Meet them in Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
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AR
Abel Rosnovski
A boy who starts with nothing
He is born in a Polish forest and learns early that the world will not make room. The novel is the long climb of a man who refuses to stay small.
Meet them in Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
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From Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
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WW
Wade Watts
The winner who has to play again
He already found the egg. A new, more immersive OASIS and a fresh quest put everything he won back on the line.
Meet them in Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
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From The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
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S
Santiago
A shepherd who dreams of treasure
He sells his flock and sets out for the Egyptian pyramids. The journey is about what a personal calling actually asks of you.
Meet them in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
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From Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
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TN
Trevor Noah
A child who was not supposed to exist
The son of a Black mother and a white father in apartheid South Africa, he learned languages, streets and timing as a way to stay alive. The comedy is the survival.
Meet them in Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
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PN
Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah
The mother who chose him
Fierce, devout, and unwilling to live by the rules that said her son should not have been born. She is the book's other hero.
Meet them in Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
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From American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
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LP
Lydia Quixano Pérez
A bookseller who has to run
She kept a shop in Acapulco and a son she adored. One afternoon turns her into a migrant with no map except north.
Meet them in American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
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L
Luca
An eight-year-old on the move
He is old enough to notice everything and young enough to still need his mother to make the world make sense. Their road is the book.
Meet them in American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
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From Artemis by Andy Weir
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JB
Jazz Bashara
A smuggler in the first city on the Moon
She delivers contraband, dodges her father, and tells herself the colony is just a job. A heist offer makes it her problem.
Meet them in Artemis by Andy Weir
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From The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
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DC
Danny Conroy
The brother who cannot leave the house behind
He and his sister were raised in a glass mansion their father bought as a prize. Sitting in a car across the street becomes a kind of devotion.
Meet them in The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
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MC
Maeve Conroy
The sister who keeps the vigil
Sharp, loyal, and unfinished with the past. If you have a sibling who became your whole family, you will recognize her at once.
Meet them in The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
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From The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
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E
Elaheh
A girl from a careful family
She meets Homa at school in Tehran and finds a friendship that feels like a second spine. History will test what that bond can hold.
Meet them in The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
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H
Homa
The friend who will not look away
Bold where Elaheh is cautious, and already watching the country change. Together they are the lion women of the title, long before they know it.
Meet them in The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
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From The Braid by Laetitia Colombani
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S
Smita
A woman in India at a breaking point
She works with hair and carries more than her share of a household. A choice about her daughter's future sets three lives in motion.
Meet them in The Braid by Laetitia Colombani
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G
Giulia
A Sicilian farmer holding the line
The family wig workshop is hers to keep or lose. Illness and a stubborn pride make her one strand of a braid she cannot see.
Meet them in The Braid by Laetitia Colombani
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S
Sarah
A lawyer in Canada expecting a child
Successful on paper and unravelling in private. What links her to two strangers is as small, and as intimate, as a braid of hair.
Meet them in The Braid by Laetitia Colombani
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From A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
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I
Isra
A bride learning Brooklyn's rules
She leaves Palestine for a marriage and a house that already has its own laws. Finding a voice inside them is the work of the book.
Meet them in A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
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D
Deya
A Brooklyn daughter a generation later
College is within reach and so is a match her family has already pictured. She starts asking the questions the women before her could not.
Meet them in A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
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From The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
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BA
Big Ammachi
A child bride who becomes the family's center
She arrives at a house in Kerala at twelve, and grows into the woman everyone leans on. Water, faith and medicine will shape the generations after her.
Meet them in The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
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From My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
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EG
Elena Greco
The girl who tells the story
She grows up in a rough Naples neighbourhood and measures herself against one friend. Ambition and loyalty are hard to tell apart.
Meet them in My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
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LC
Lila Cerullo
The friend who seems to burn brighter
Fierce, inventive, and already leaving other people behind. Their friendship is a rivalry you will not want to look away from.
Meet them in My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
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From Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
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EP
Elio Perlman
A seventeen-year-old on the Riviera
One long summer, a visiting scholar arrives at his parents' house. What follows is a first love told at the temperature of July.
Meet them in Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
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O
Oliver
The American who comes for the season
Older, sunlit, and not as simple as he first seems. Elio cannot stop watching him, and neither will you.
Meet them in Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
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From Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
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FM
Frances Mayes
A writer who buys a ruined villa
She restores a house in Cortona and, with it, a way of eating, walking and staying. Tuscany is the other character at the table.
Meet them in Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
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From A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
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EH
Ernest Hemingway
A young writer hungry in Paris
Cafés, bookshops, and the people who would become a generation. He is still learning how to make a sentence, and a life, hold.
Meet them in A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
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From The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
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VM
Vianne Mauriac
The sister who stays
She tries to keep her daughter safe in an occupied French village. Quiet courage looks like a kitchen, a list, and a door she has to open.
Meet them in The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
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IR
Isabelle Rossignol
The sister who will not sit still
Restless, young, and already in trouble with the rules. Her war takes a different road from Vianne's, and both are costly.
Meet them in The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
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From Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
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P
Pelagia
A doctor's daughter on Cephalonia
She is promised to a local fisherman when an Italian officer is billeted in the house. The island, and her heart, will not stay as they were.
Meet them in Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
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CC
Captain Antonio Corelli
An officer who arrives with a mandolin
He is the occupier and, inconveniently, good company. Music is how he first becomes a person instead of a uniform.
Meet them in Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
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From Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
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AZ
Alexis Zorba
A labourer who knows how to live
He talks, dances, works and refuses to treat life as a theory. The bookish narrator who hires him is about to get an education.
Meet them in Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
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From The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
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DS
Daniel Sempere
A boy who finds a forgotten novel
In a secret library of books in postwar Barcelona, one title chooses him. Learning what became of its author turns into an obsession.
Meet them in The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
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FT
Fermín Romero de Torres
The friend who makes the search possible
Wily, talkative, and loyal once he decides you are worth it. Daniel's quest would be lonelier, and less fun, without him.
Meet them in The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
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From The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
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JB
Jake Barnes
An American in Paris after the war
He has a wound he does not advertise and a circle he cannot quite leave. The road to Pamplona is a way of staying in motion.
Meet them in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
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LA
Lady Brett Ashley
The woman the group cannot quit
Glamorous, restless, and always almost leaving. She and Jake understand each other too well for anyone's comfort.
Meet them in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
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From Normal People by Sally Rooney
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CW
Connell Waldron
The school star who cannot say it
In a small town in the west of Ireland he is admired and unsure. Marianne is the person he keeps circling.
Meet them in Normal People by Sally Rooney
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MS
Marianne Sheridan
The classmate no one has figured out
Strange to her school, magnetic later. Their years of almosts are the most intimate kind of love story.
Meet them in Normal People by Sally Rooney
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From Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
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KF
Keiko Furukura
An eighteen-year veteran of the same shop
The convenience store makes sense to her. The people who want her to want more of a life do not. Dry, funny, and unexpectedly radical.
Meet them in Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
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From Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
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S
Sayuri
A fisherman's daughter sold to Kyoto
She arrives at a geisha house with nothing but unusual grey eyes. The arts she learns are beautiful. The bargains are not.
Meet them in Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
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From The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
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R
Rahel
One half of a pair of twins
She returns to Kerala years after a single devastating season. Childhood, in Roy's hands, notices everything the adults refuse to say.
Meet them in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
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E
Estha
The twin who went quiet
He and Rahel were once a single private language. The book is what happened to that language, and to a family that could not hold them.
Meet them in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
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From The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
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BH
Balram Halwai
A driver with a story to tell
He writes to a Chinese premier about how he left the village. The humour is dark. The climb is the point.
Meet them in The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
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From Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
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HP
Hercule Poirot
A detective on a glamorous cruise
He wanted a holiday on the Nile. A honeymoon party with too many motives makes that impossible. Watch him notice what the rest of the boat misses.
Meet them in Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
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From Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
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KB
Karen Blixen
A Danish woman on a coffee farm
She looks back on the Ngong Hills, the people who worked the land, and a life that would not stay. The prose is as clear as the air she remembers.
Meet them in Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
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From The Women by Kristin Hannah
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FM
Frances “Frankie” McGrath
A young nurse who volunteers for Vietnam
She thinks she is following her brother into service. What she finds, and what waits when she comes home, is a war the country does not want to see.
Meet them in The Women by Kristin Hannah
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From James by Percival Everett
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J
James
The man Huck Finn called Jim
He is far sharper than the old story allowed him to be. Everett gives him the voice, the danger and the wit the river always belonged to.
Meet them in James by Percival Everett
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H
Huck
The boy on the raft
Still lighting out, still talking. Seen from James's side, he is both a companion and a problem the book refuses to simplify.
Meet them in James by Percival Everett
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From The French Illusion by John Grisham
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SN
Stuart Nash
A young lawyer recruited in Paris
A honeymooning couple has been kidnapped, and someone thinks Stuart is useful bait. Grisham at full pace, with a hero still learning the job.
Meet them in The French Illusion by John Grisham
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From The Law Student by John Grisham
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SN
Stuart Nash
A small-town football player facing a choice
One decision, and one family's fight for justice, is what points him toward law school. A short prequel that makes you care before the Paris case begins.
Meet them in The Law Student by John Grisham
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From The Widow by John Grisham
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SL
Simon Latch
A small-town Virginia lawyer in over his head
He takes on an elderly widow as his richest client. Then he is the one on trial, and the only way out is to find the truth.
Meet them in The Widow by John Grisham
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EB
Eleanor Barnett
The client everyone suddenly wants
An older woman with more money, and more attention, than she asked for. Meeting her is the first turn of a very tight knot.
Meet them in The Widow by John Grisham
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From Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
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EZ
Elizabeth Zott
A chemist who will not be anyone's assistant
Forced out of her lab and onto a television cooking show, she teaches women far more than dinner. Witty, exact, and impossible to patronize.
Meet them in Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
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S
Six-Thirty
The dog who understands more than most people
He has a large vocabulary and no patience for fools. If you pick up the book for Elizabeth, you will stay in part for him.
Meet them in Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
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From Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross
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M
Matilda
A messenger goddess born between clans
She carries word between gods and mortals, and belongs fully to neither. A dream-bound mortal makes her risk the rules she was raised to keep.
Meet them in Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross
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VB
Vincent of Beckett
A mortal lord with a prayer he stopped making
He asked the gods for help once and learned not to wait. When Matilda finds him again, devotion and danger arrive together.
Meet them in Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross
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From Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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JG
Joan Goodwin
An astronomer who answers NASA's call
Reserved, brilliant, and content at Rice until a notice seeking women scientists changes her sky. The shuttle programme is about to ask everything of her.
Meet them in Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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VF
Vanessa Ford
An engineer who can fly anything
Magnetic, exact, and one of the candidates in Joan's class. She is the person who makes the stars feel like a life, not only a subject.
Meet them in Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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From Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
Book ConciergeNo spoilers
CJ
Cal Jenkins
A hardware man in a small Ohio town
A kiss on V-E Day binds two families before anyone knows what it will cost. Cal is the first person you meet in a secret that lasts half a century.
Meet them in Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
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MS
Margaret Salt
The woman on the other side of that day
She has a marriage, a town, and a moment she cannot take back. What follows remakes the children as much as the adults.
Meet them in Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
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From Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
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HA
Haymitch Abernathy
A sixteen-year-old reaped for the Quarter Quell
Twenty-four years before Katniss, he is sent into a Hunger Games with twice the tributes. Meet him before the legend, when he is still just a boy from 12.
Meet them in Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
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From Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
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PK
Phil Knight
A young runner with a crazy idea
Japanese running shoes, a lot of debt, and a company that almost dies more than once. The founder of Nike, before the swoosh was inevitable.
Meet them in Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
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From Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
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SJ
Steve Jobs
The man who wanted technology to have taste
Isaacson had his cooperation and did not sand him down. Temper, design, and the insistence that those two things belong in the same sentence.
Meet them in Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
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From Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Book ConciergeNo spoilers
RC
River Cartwright
An MI5 officer dumped in Slough House
He still thinks he belongs in the game. A kidnapping gives the rejects a chance to prove the Service was wrong about them.
Meet them in Slow Horses by Mick Herron
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JL
Jackson Lamb
The slovenly spook in charge
He looks finished and is not. If you like your spies rude, brilliant and allergic to glory, he is the reason to start the series.
Meet them in Slow Horses by Mick Herron
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From The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
Book ConciergeNo spoilers
ML
Meg Lefleur
An eleven-year-old at the orphan asylum
Sharp, unadoptable, and already done with other people's piety. Oxford, Mississippi in 1933 has not met anyone quite like her.
Meet them in The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
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BC
Birdie Calhoun
A visiting sister with a job to do
Sent from the farm to ask for a loan, she volunteers at the asylum while she waits. Practical, blunt, and about to pick a fight worth having.
Meet them in The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
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CL
Charlie Lefleur
A mother trying to get her daughter back
Newly free and running out of luck, she will break the rules that broke her. The alliance she forms is the calamity, and the club.
Meet them in The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
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From Whistler by Ann Patchett
Book ConciergeNo spoilers
DF
Daphne Fuller
An English teacher at the Met
At fifty-three she spots the stepfather she has not seen since she was nine. What follows is a reunion about the choices that were made for them.
Meet them in Whistler by Ann Patchett
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ET
Eddie Triplett
A book editor with a long gap in the story
He was married into Daphne's family for a short season and then vanished from it. Kind, literary, and carrying a love that outlasted a brief marriage.
Meet them in Whistler by Ann Patchett
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From Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
Book ConciergeNo spoilers
LC
Livia Cable
A farm-country woman who used to be a pianist
A call from an old lover asks whether she will meet the musician she once was. The life she built, and the one she left, have to be heard together.
Meet them in Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
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Book ConciergeNo spoilers
S
Sigurd
The voice on the other end of the line
Decades ago he knew her as Livia Bohusz, a conservatory student certain of the piano. Asking to see her again stirs everything she has kept still.
Meet them in Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
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