Alice Kelleher

Alice is a young, successful writer who has just moved to a small town on the west coast of Ireland after suffering from a nervous breakdown in New York. She has few friends, and her deepest and most intense relationship is with Eileen, whom she met in college. She is not close to her family and, as a teenager, was desperate to get away from them. She is now effectively estranged from her mother, though she is financially generous toward her and paid off her mortgage. Alice falls in love seldom but intensely and unhappily. She is bisexual and spends a lot of time writing and thinking about sex and emotions, though she feels guilty about these preoccupations, as she feels they are luxuries for privileged people. Having achieved her dream of being famous, wealthy, and successful, Alice now despises fame and feels directionless and deracinated.

Eileen Lydon

Eileen was Alice’s roommate in college, at which time she was the more accomplished and popular of the two, and the greater academic success. She now works for a small literary magazine and lives in a shared house in Dublin. Eileen, like Alice, is dissatisfied with her life and feels she has achieved nothing. Unlike Alice, she has not even been a success in worldly terms, and her romantic relationships have been unhappy. When she was a child, she and Simon Costigan were neighbors, and she fell in love with him. Her feelings are revived when they become lovers in adulthood, though she feels aggrieved at what she thinks is a cool, aloof attitude on his part. Eileen has strong feelings but has difficulty in revealing these to anyone, even Simon and Alice, who know her better than anyone.

Simon Costigan

Simon is a quiet, serious, highly intelligent and thoughtful man, about five years older than Eileen and Alice. He has known Eileen since she was a baby and has always had a close though ambiguous relationship with her. He is a political adviser and works long hours, meaning that he is often tired. He could be making much more money but chose his current job for its social value, though he now doubts that he is achieving anything worthwhile. He also seems lonely, though he has many relationships, often with young and beautiful women. Simon is a Catholic, and his religion is of great importance to him, informing everything he does. He has strong ethical principles and is so concerned about the future of the planet that he will not even drink out of a plastic cup.

Felix Brady

Felix is a young man who lives in Ballina and works at a local warehouse. He is bisexual and cultivates a somewhat raffish and mysterious image, telling Alice that he is an unreliable character and that he owes money around town. Felix has been sexually promiscuous with both men and women, first impregnating a girl at the age of fifteen, an act which left him with a deep sense of guilt. He enjoys violent pornography and can be cruel in his relationships. He likes Alice to tell him that she loves him but afterward coldly points out that he does not reciprocate her feelings. He eventually admits that he does love Alice, and the two settle down into a stable relationship. Felix is highly inquisitive and asks many questions, the purpose of which is seldom immediately apparent.

Lola Lydon

Lola is Eileen’s elder sister, with whom she has a generally hostile relationship. Lola is ambitious and materialistic, and she looks down on Eileen for still having a low-paid job and...