August is another of the novel’s main characters and first-person narrators. He is the male romantic lead and Iris’s prospective soul mate. The chapters titled with his first name present episodes from his independent storyline and offer insight into his private world and life. His chapters also balance Iris’s chapters by developing the novel’s wider themes in an alternate narrative context.

August is a courageous, loving, sacrificial, and driven character. He is attractive, charming, and gracious. He is best known for being a star basketball player. Because his late father, Perry, was also a basketball star, August wants to follow in his footsteps. Perry not only “passed his DNA on to [August]” but also gave him “his wingspan, his big hands, his long, lean body” (3), and his love for athletics. From his mother, August learns that he has also inherited his father’s patience. In the narrative present, August often thinks about his father. He died many years prior, but August tries to honor his memory with his own life. This relationship is also important to August because Perry was Black, while August’s mother, stepfather, and stepbrother are all white. Retaining an emotional connection with Perry helps August connect to his culture and history.

August’s complex personal history and family life also inform his love for basketball. Accustomed to displacement and othering, August found a sense of belonging and identity in basketball. He explains that he “sometimes felt displaced in [his] mother’s new family” after the death of his father because he “look[s] nothing like anyone in the family [he has] left […] Basketball—that rim, that rock—became the thing [he] clung to” (10). This athletic arena gave him a way to connect with his late father and distinguish himself among his peers. Playing basketball offered him a new social network. As an adult, he continues to rely on basketball for this sense of safety, security, and affirmation.

August’s relationship with Iris changes him. He is a dynamic character who proves both interested in and capable of personal transformation. August falls in love with Iris at first sight. He regards their meeting at the bar in Chapter 1 as a “monumental twist of fate” (12). Iris is not only beautiful and charming but also sensitive, spirited, and perceptive. August admires her strength and is eager to get to know her better. For these reasons, he proves willing to sacrifice his comfort to pursue a relationship with her. Her relationship with Caleb is the primary barrier to their love affair. Despite this conflict with his long-time nemesis, August doesn’t give up on Iris. At times, he tells himself that he should let Iris go and stop hoping for a future with her. However, logic can’t erase his soulmate connection with her. The two end up together at the end of the novel because August does everything in his power to cultivate their innate bond.

Caleb, the antagonist of the novel, is Iris’s abusive boyfriend and August’s long-time nemesis. The basketball players have always been rivals, both on and off the court. Their dislike for each other only grows when August learns that Caleb is with Iris and when Caleb discovers that August is interested in Iris. Caleb is particularly intolerant of August because he is an insecure character who is terrified of losing his girlfriend. He knows deep down that Iris doesn’t love him and thus proves willing to exhibit violence to control her. He not only physically and sexually abuses Iris but also attacks August on the court. Caleb does not have a moral conscience; he feels no guilt for injuring his opponent and no remorse for brutalizing his girlfriend. His lack of self-reflection and repentance underscores Caleb’s wicked tendencies. He knows that his name and reputation will protect him and uses his social power to dominate and hurt others.

Caleb acts as a barrier to Iris and August’s love. While Iris is with Caleb, she knows that she cannot act on or even humor her feelings for August. She repeatedly pushes August away because she is terrified that Caleb will lash out against August, Iris, and Sarai. Meanwhile, August longs to establish a connection with Iris but knows that while she is with Caleb, he has to be careful. He doesn’t understand the extent of Iris and Caleb’s dynamic but does believe that Iris deserves to be with someone better than him. The author uses Caleb’s character to incite narrative tension, challenge Iris and August as individuals, and complicate their pursuit of love and happiness.

Caleb’s character also complicates Iris’s Journey Toward Self-Empowerment. When Caleb and Iris first got together, they “started as friends” (106). As time passes, however, there is “no real connection, no friendship” between them (106). Iris is thus isolated within this relationship. Her alienation only worsens after she has Sarai. Caleb controls everything she does. He cuts her off financially, reports her to social services for allegedly abusing Sarai, lies to the police about her stealing his car, limits her social outings, and hires a bodyguard to follow her wherever she goes. Meanwhile, Caleb rapes Iris at gunpoint. These abusive patterns subjugate Iris, robbing her of her autonomy over her life, voice, and body. While she is with him, Iris feels like a shell of herself. She loses sight of her dreams because her life becomes solely about survival. Even after she escapes Caleb, Iris feels emotionally and psychologically scarred by his abuse. It takes her over a year to reclaim her former identity and to restart her life.