Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Coraline “Cora” Zeng is the protagonist of the book, with the story closely following her perspective. She is a young Chinese American woman, and at the start of the book she is living in New York City with her half-sister, Delilah. Cora and Delilah’s father is Chinese, and he currently lives in China; Cora’s mother, who is white and American, joined a cult some years ago. The only other family Cora has in the city that she is in touch with are her maternal and paternal aunts, Aunt Lois and Auntie Zeng, respectively. Cora was working the front desk of the Met but lost this job in the pandemic; sometime after Delilah’s death, she takes up a job cleaning crime scenes in Chinatown alongside Harvey and Yifei.

At the beginning of the book, Cora is an extremely timid and fearful woman, with a number of behaviors that she believes make her odd and different from those around her, such as her obsessive need for cleanliness. Cora’s aloofness is exacerbated by Delilah’s loss, as Cora was largely dependent on Delilah, and having to move through the world without her sister makes Cora feel less confident and unsure of being able to handle herself in social situations.