their old secret cave. Haunted by questions about suffering, death, and her own survival, she revisits the river, hoping "that if I came to the river on the right day, at the right hour, the surface of the water might provide the answer... But nature has no memory."

Don Ignacio
A wealthy Dominican landowner, Valencia's father, and employer of Amabelle and Sebastien. Originally from Spain, he often reminisces about his lost homeland. Each night, he listens to the radio for updates on the Spanish Civil War. As Amabelle observes, "He felt himself the orphaned child of a now orphaned people." Despite his wealth, Don Ignacio is empathetic towards others' suffering. He takes Amabelle into his home after finding her orphaned by the riverbank, a gesture rooted in his own humble beginnings. Reflecting on his past in Spain, he says, "My father was a baker... There were times when he gave bread to everyone in our quarter for nothing. I was his only son but he would never let me eat until everyone else had eaten." When his son accidentally kills a Haitian worker with his car, Don Ignacio sympathizes with the grieving father and wishes to visit him. However, his compassion has limits; when his own grandson dies, he becomes consumed by his own grief and forgets others' suffering.

Doctor Javier
An intense and educated man, Doctor Javier admires Amabelle's intelligence and determination. He invites her to work at a clinic in Haiti after learning that her parents were healers and that she successfully delivered Valencia's twins. "You can be trained," he says. "We have only two Haitian doctors for a large area. I cannot go there all the time, and I know of only one or two midwives in that region of the border. You are greatly needed." When he learns about the impending genocide, he warns Amabelle and others to flee, offering space in their trucks. Unfortunately, before they can escape, he is arrested and never seen again.

Kongo
An elderly mask maker and carpenter, whose real name is unknown. His son is killed by Pico Duarte's car. As the genocide begins, he urges Amabelle to flee. Although he feels too old to escape himself, he performs a ritual for her safe passage and provides guidance on how to navigate the mountain trails and cross the river.

Sebastien Onius
Amabelle's beloved, employed in Don Ignacio's sugar cane fields. His father perished seven years prior to the story's start in a catastrophic hurricane. This tragedy drove him and his sister to seek employment in Dominica, while their mother stayed behind in Haiti. Sebastien is a sturdy, composed man, serving as Amabelle's friend and protector. When the genocide erupts, he vanishes, likely killed, and is never seen again. He remains a mysterious figure: immensely strong and physically imposing, often sweaty and dirty from labor but speaking like a poet in their secret cave, recounting dreams and past events, including the hurricane that claimed his father. He despises silence, equating it with sleep, a state close to death. Though he disappears early in the narrative, presumably killed by Dominicans, his presence lingers throughout as Amabelle mourns and continually inquires about his fate.

PapiSee Don Ignacio

Man Rapadou
Yves' mother, harboring her own dark secrets: upon discovering that her husband, a Haitian, intended to become an American spy, she prepared a meal laced with ground glass and rat poison, ultimately killing him. She confides in Amabelle, saying, "Greater than my love for this man was my love for my country."

Father Romain
A Haitian priest dedicated to aiding impoverished Haitian workers and running a school for their children. He frequently speaks about their homeland in Haiti, emphasizing how shared language, traditions, and memories unite them as a community. Amabelle notes, "His creed was one of memory, how remembering—though sometimes painful—can make you strong." During the genocide, he is tortured by Dominicans and loses his sanity. However, he eventually recovers after leaving the priesthood, marrying, and having three children. He tells Amabelle, "It took more than prayers to heal me after the slaughter. It took a love closer to the earth, closer to my own body, to stop my tears. Perhaps I have lost, but I have also gained an ever greater understanding of things both godly and earthly."

Valencia
Daughter of Don Ignacio, wife of Pico Duarte, and mother of twin infants, a boy and a girl. She and Amabelle grew up together, and later, during the genocide, Valencia helps hide Haitians from the murderers because she recalls her close bond with Amabelle. "I hid them because I couldn't hide you.… I thought you'd been killed, so everything I did, I did in your name." She stands out as one of the few characters in the book who neither kills, injures, nor neglects others. Despite being married to a man who executes orders to massacre as many Haitians as possible, she strives to protect them.

Yves
Yves is a sugar cane laborer and a refugee. Amabelle flees with him, and with no other destination in mind, she follows him to his mother’s home in Haiti. They coexist as if they are a married couple, leading his mother to believe they are romantically involved, although they are not. Amabelle is still mourning Sebastien, who has gone missing. Yves spends his days toiling in the fields, returning home only at night to go straight to bed.