Arthur Leander

Arthur Leander, a famous actor from Delano Island off the coast of British Columbia, dies in the opening scene of the novel. Nevertheless, he remains present throughout as the point of connection between many of the other characters. Married and divorced three times, he has one child, Tyler, whom he adores. He is a close friend of Clark Thompson’s and was married to Miranda, who drew the Dr. Eleven comics, which he then passed on to Kirsten Raymonde, a child actress who worked with him on his final performance of King Lear. At the time of his death, Arthur is feeling dissatisfied with the way his career and life are going. His death of a heart attack onstage in Toronto presages the countless deaths that will follow as a result of the Georgia Flu.

Jeevan Chaudhary

Jeevan Chaudhary is in the audience on the night of Arthur's death and, when Arthur falls, comes onstage to try and save him, although he is unable to. He meets Kirsten on this occasion and waits with her until her minder, Tanya, appears. Jeevan is connected to Arthur in other ways: a former paparazzo, he photographed Arthur's wife, Miranda, and later interviewed Arthur.

After failing to save Arthur, Jeevan decides he wants to be a paramedic. In the early days of the pandemic, he shelters with his brother, Frank, before leaving Toronto and ultimately becoming a doctor in a small town in the United States.

Frank Chaudhary

Frank, Jeevan's brother and a writer, uses a wheelchair and euthanizes himself when he realizes he would only slow Jeevan down in his escape.

Tanya

Tanya is a childminder on the set of King Lear and is also Arthur's most recent girlfriend. She gives Kirsten a paperweight that Kirsten carries ever afterward. The paperweight was once stolen from Arthur by Miranda, who later returned it.

Miranda Carroll

Miranda is Arthur's first wife. She is from the same island as Arthur, and her mother is a family friend of his. They meet when Miranda is young, working in administration for a shipping company and stuck in a failing relationship. After she and Arthur marry, Miranda continues to work for the shipping company, but her real love is drawing, and she spends much of her time drawing the Dr. Eleven comics. Miranda and Arthur divorce when Arthur begins sleeping with his co-star, Elizabeth, but before his death, Miranda gives Arthur some privately printed copies of her comic books.

Miranda succumbs to the Georgia Flu in Malaysia in the early days of the collapse, but her work lives on.

Clark Thompson

Clark Thompson is Arthur's closest friend. After Arthur dies, he boards a plane to Toronto that is diverted to Severn City Airport. Here he remains for the next two decades, becoming the curator of the Museum of Civilization. Clark is still there when the Traveling Symphony arrives.

Elizabeth Colton

Elizabeth is Arthur's second wife and the mother of his child, Tyler. She is traveling to Toronto with her son to attend Arthur's funeral and is on the same flight as Clark. After the plane is diverted, she and Tyler live at Severn City Airport for two years before departing with a religious group.

Tyler Leander (The Prophet)

Tyler, Arthur's son, becomes extremely religious while at Severn City Airport and comes to believe that the plague was sent from God to punish the unworthy. He has imbibed many of his ideas from the Dr. Eleven comics, and when he comes to establish a cult of his own, he bases much of its language on Dr. Eleven’s own words. By Year Twenty, Tyler’s cult has begun to terrorize many towns in the vicinity of the airport. The cult is violent and practices child marriage, and those who leave town without permission are killed if they return. Tyler, who has become known as “the prophet,” is ultimately killed by one of his own followers.

Kirsten Raymonde 

Kirsten, once a child actress, left Toronto with her brother, Peter, after the collapse and walked with him for a year. After Peter died from infection, Kirsten joined the Traveling Symphony, a group of actors and musicians led by an unnamed conductor and Gil, a director. While she continues to act, she also serves as a scout for the company. Kirsten has killed two people and eventually kills a third, one of the prophet's men. She treasures her Dr. Eleven comics and her paperweight, and collects information and clippings about Arthur Leander, but remembers little of the time before the collapse.

Sayid and Dieter

Sayid, a former boyfriend of Kirsten's, is a member of the Symphony who is kidnapped by the prophet after a girl named Eleanor stows away with them. Dieter, an older man, is kidnapped with him and is killed.

Charlie and Jeremy

Charlie and Jeremy are former members of the Symphony who were left in St. Deborah when Charlie became pregnant.

August

August is Kirsten's closest friend and traveling companion, a young man who plays violin in the Symphony and believes strongly in the idea that parallel universes must exist and that art is necessary for life to continue.

Alexandra 

Alexandra is a teenager who travels and acts with the Symphony. She was born after the collapse and frequently asks questions about how things were before.

Diallo

Diallo is a former copywriter who decides to try and revive the concept of the newspaper. He interviews as many members of the Symphony as he can, and one of his newspapers eventually makes its way to the Severn City Airport, where Clark reads it.