Character guide

Gian-Luca

major

Also known as Little Gian-Luca, II Gian-Luca, poor Gian-Luca, Luca, V, Gian, III Gian Luca, IV Gian-Luca, Sono Gian-Luca, Monsieur Gian-Luca

Gian-Luca is a London restaurateur's headwaiter whose exacting discipline conceals a lonely, orphaned boy who never had a name beyond his own. He loves Maddalena with a devotion that cannot answer her hunger for a child, and the gap between his tenderness and her need becomes the quiet fault line of their marriage. His fierce, self-made competence and his buried longing for belonging drive the novel's central portrait of a man shaped by work, love, and loss.

Maddalena

major

Also known as Maddalena Trevi, V Maddalena, the watchful Maddalena, the silent Maddalena, VI Maddalena, III Maddalena

Maddalena Trevi leaves her father's trattoria and the sunlit Campagna to marry Gian-Luca in London, where her whole world narrows to one man. Childless and devout, she kneels and pleads with him for affection, then turns to the Madonna and Father Antonio for the patience she cannot summon alone. Her faithful, aching heart—and the question she dare not finish asking—makes her the emotional center of the novel's early and middle life.

Teresa Boselli

major

Also known as Teresa, II Teresa, old Teresa, VI Teresa

Teresa Boselli rules her family with a stern, penitential faith forged from a youthful sin she has spent a lifetime atoning for. When her daughter Olga lies dying and refuses to betray her lover, Teresa hurls her rosary against the gates of heaven, demanding Olga's life in exchange for her own past. Her terrible, bargaining love and her unyielding conscience set the moral weather of the Boselli household across generations.

Mario Varese

major

Also known as Mario, the good Mario, Presently Mario, generous Mario, Poor Mario

Mario Varese is the good-hearted relative whose holidays are elaborate games of make-believe, spun out in Teresa's back parlor for children who will likely never see Cornwall. He adores his family yet is never quite content with them, and his yearning for faraway places is both comic and quietly sad. His warm, impractical imagination gives the Boselli circle its moments of collective hope and gentle comedy.

Fabio

supporting

Also known as IV Fabio, poor Fabio, January Fabio, old Fabio, III After Christmas Fabio

Fabio keeps his shop behind a counter of sausages and cheeses, a small rotund man with a trembling lip and a monk's ring of grey hair. He insists on furnishing Gian-Luca and Maddalena's first home, saying firmly that he will do at least this much for Olga. His quiet, grieving generosity anchors the family's Italian past to its London present, and his tenderness toward Maddalena marks him as one of the few who truly welcomes her.

Rosa

supporting

Also known as III Rosa, Nonna, Berta, patient Rosa, IV Rosa, II Rosa

Rosa gave her milk to Gian-Luca, and that bond makes her the bridge between his old life and his marriage to Maddalena. She confides her griefs to Maddalena—a daughter who will marry at a register office, a son-in-law who calls himself an agnostic, a homesick husband who keeps postponing their return to Italy. Her patient, wounded piety and her loyalty to the foster-child she raised give the novel its texture of ordinary immigrant endurance.

Nerone

supporting

Also known as Rocca, gibed Nerone, II Nerone, the miserly Nerone, cross old Nerone, old Nerone

Nerone presides over his own shop and household with a sour tongue, forever complaining that his daughter Rosa's children are useless and that Geppe steals his cigarettes. Yet he adores babies of any nationality and secretly dotes on Gian-Luca, seeing only the boy's virtues while detesting his own kin. His running feuds and stubborn pride make him a comic, prickly fixture of the Italian quarter, and his grudging affection for Gian-Luca quietly measures the boy's place in the community.

Geppe

supporting

Also known as Geppe greedy, poor Geppe, Young Geppe, Poor Geppe, Only Geppe, December Geppe

Geppe drifts through the family shop as a reluctant wage-earner, more interested in smoking tobacco than selling it and forever recounting his military prowess to anyone who will listen. His laziness and insolence collide with Nerone's penny-pinching temper, filling the house with quarrels that echo louder as he ages. Around him the family's wartime anxieties gather, and his restless uselessness sharpens the contrast with Gian-Luca's earnest striving.

Padrona

supporting

Also known as the Padrona, The Padrona, the Capo, die Padrona, the tired Padrona, Padrona of the Capo

The Padrona stands among the bottles of the Capo di Monte, bowing to clients with a reserve that makes her rare smiles feel like favors. Teresa speaks against her from the cash-desk and parlor, while Gian-Luca lingers by the bar in the afternoons hoping she will appear. Her cool distance and the jealousy she provokes make her the quiet center of the boy's divided loyalties between home and the restaurant that has become his refuge.

Francesco Millo

supporting

Also known as Millo, Francesco

Millo has raised the Doric to great fame through an epicurean palate and a taste for originality, and he treats the search for rare viands as a gentleman's sport. When he comes himself to the Casa Boselli, sniffing toadstools and demanding to see the stock, Fabio trembles between excitement and terror at the honor. His exacting standards and his warning that one bad delivery means ruin give the shop its first real taste of grand ambition and its first real fear of failure.

Padrone

supporting

Also known as The Padrone, III Everyone, the smiling Padrone, the tearful Padrone, the harassed Padrone

The Padrone runs the Capo di Monte with an aloof manner and a shrewd eye for the main chance, swearing to Mario that he will bring all London to his tables. He has the bump of selection, a beautiful golden-haired wife, and a willingness to let the little round tins do their work while the chef pretends otherwise. His ambition and his small deceits give Gian-Luca his first lessons in the world's comfortable compromises, and his rise shadows the boy's own uncertain future.

Sisto

minor

Also known as Cousin Sisto, Meanwhile Cousin Sisto

A cousin who appears in the narrative as a relative.

Signor Millo

minor

Also known as Millo

A gentleman named Millo, possibly a local authority or neighbor.

Schmidt

minor

Also known as this Schmidt

A foreigner or visitor named Schmidt.

Ugo Doria

minor

Also known as Doria, this Doria

A man named Doria, possibly a noble or acquaintance.

Roberto

minor

Also known as IV Roberto, this Roberto, little Roberto

A young boy or small Roberto in the story.

Aunt Ottavia

minor

Also known as small Aunt Ottavia, the tactless Aunt Ottavia, the poor Aunt Ottavia

A tactless and poor aunt in the family.

Olga Boselli

minor

Also known as Olga, Boselli

A member of the Boselli family, possibly a daughter or relative.

Leone

minor

A character named Leone, possibly a servant or local.

Giovanni

minor

A man named Giovanni, likely a servant or acquaintance.

Signora Rocca

minor

Also known as Rocca, Signora, The Signora Rocca, June the Signora Rocca

A woman of the Rocca household, possibly a neighbor.

Lidia

minor

Also known as Cousin Lidia

A cousin named Lidia in the family circle.

Jane Coram

minor

Also known as Jane, Jane Coram's

An Englishwoman named Jane Coram, possibly a visitor.

Riccardo

minor

A man named Riccardo, likely a servant or relative.

Father Antonio

minor

Also known as old Father Antonio, Antonio

An old priest named Father Antonio.

Monsieur Martin

minor

Also known as Monsieur Pierre Martin

A French gentleman named Monsieur Martin.

Milady

minor

Also known as the little Milady

A titled woman, possibly English, referred to as Milady.

Morelia

minor

A character named Morelia, possibly a servant or local.

Moscatone

minor

A character named Moscatone, possibly a nickname.

Henri

minor

Also known as the good Henri

A good-natured man named Henri.

Daniele

minor

A man named Daniele, possibly a servant or relative.

Alano

minor

A man named Alano, likely a servant or local.

Giuliano

minor

A man named Giuliano, possibly a relative or servant.

Nonno

minor

The grandfather figure in the family.

Beppo

minor

A man named Beppo, likely a servant or peasant.

Marchese Sabelli

minor

Also known as the Marchese, The Marchese, Marchese

A nobleman, the Marchese Sabelli.

Albert Cole

minor

Also known as Cole, Albert, Robert

An Englishman named Albert Cole, possibly a visitor.

Sylvester

minor

A character named Sylvester, likely a servant or local.

Munster

minor

A character named Munster, possibly a foreigner.

Lucrezia

minor

A woman named Lucrezia, possibly a servant or local.

Gemma

minor

Also known as Poor Gemma

A poor woman named Gemma.

Carlo

minor

A man named Carlo, likely a servant or relative.

Cesare

minor

A character named Cesare, possibly a local figure.

Giuseppina

minor

Also known as The Giuseppina

A woman named Giuseppina, possibly a servant.

Anna

minor

A woman named Anna, likely a servant or relative.

Pietrino

minor

A character named Pietrino, possibly a child or servant.

Marchesa

minor

A noblewoman, the Marchesa.