Character guide

The Narrator

major

Also known as I, me, mine, ye, myself

He drifts through Christiania with holes in his shoes and nothing in his stomach, peddling articles to newspapers while his dignity outlasts his money. His pride is both armor and affliction: he invents a name, pawns his waistcoat, and gives coins away he cannot spare, all to keep from being seen as what he is. His hunger sharpens into something stranger than appetite — grand fantasies, sudden rages, a mind that will not stop narrating even as the body fails. He is the whole weather of the book, and watching him is like watching someone walk a ledge.

Ylajali

supporting

She first exists only as a name he gives her — Ylajali — a word he repeats like a charm, conjuring palaces of amethyst and ruby where she waits on a throne of yellow roses. When they finally meet, she is real and strange and slightly amused, and the gap between his fantasy and her actual presence becomes almost unbearable. She matters because she is the one thing his hunger cannot consume: a desire that outlives bread, and the measure of how far his mind has already traveled from the world.

Hans Pauli

minor

Also known as Hans Pauli Pettersen

A student acquaintance of the narrator who appears in the city.

Missy

minor

A woman the narrator speaks with in a shop.

Cisler

minor

A man the narrator encounters and interacts with briefly.

Student Pettersen

minor

A student who interacts with the narrator.

Happolati

minor

Also known as Johann Arendt Happolati

A man the narrator meets and writes about.

Jens Olaj

minor

A minor character mentioned in the narrative.

Friele

minor

A person the narrator encounters.

Pascha

minor

Also known as Bookseller Pascha

A bookseller the narrator visits.

Christie

minor

Also known as Mr. Christie

A man the narrator meets.

Miss Andersen

minor

A woman the narrator briefly interacts with.

Kierulf

minor

Also known as Joachim Kierulf

A person mentioned in the narrator's thoughts.