The Amalfi Curse

Haven Ambrose is the main character of the 21st-century timeline. Penner quickly establishes the character’s formidable willpower when the 35-year-old American nautical archaeologist chooses to stay in Positano, resolved to fulfill her father’s dream even after she’s taken off Project Relic and loses her funding. Haven’s keen intelligence and research skills are essential to the plot as she unravels the mystery of Mari’s past, deduces that Savina is a sea witch responsible for the recent tragedy, and determines the location of the gems by cracking a code and examining archival evidence.

Haven’s strong sense of ethics has both positive and negative effects on her circumstances and emotional state. For example, she finds a way to keep Savina from unleashing more havoc out of a sense of moral responsibility, noting: “I couldn’t walk away from this, not knowing all I knew. If I did, I’d be as guilty as Savina” (281). On other occasions, her strong conscience leads to painful feelings of guilt, particularly when she blames herself for not being present with her father during his second stroke, which caused his death. Haven’s dynamic arc allows her to find healing and become more open-minded. At first, she dismisses magic and the Amalfi Curse as “ludicrous” (32), but the “rational, science-minded” Haven eventually accepts that there are forces at work in the world beyond what science can explain (258). In a key moment of growth, she lets go of some of the guilt she feels about her father’s death when she accepts that there are more important things at stake than fulfilling his dream. Haven’s determination, intelligence, and ethics help her to serve her professional and narrative functions.

Haven serves as the narrator and one of the two protagonists, giving her a central role in driving the story’s plot and developing its themes. Unlike the other viewpoint characters’ chapters, Haven’s chapters are written from the first-person point of view, so her voice more directly shapes the story’s mood, tone, and setting.

For example, Penner uses Haven’s appreciation of beauty and attention to detail to paint a vibrant picture of modern-day Positano:

I walked toward the small terrace, facing southeast. It had a panoramic view of the village of Positano and its many buildings, splashes of pink and orange and white stacked vertically up the hillside like the layers of a cake. […] And beyond this, the Tyrrhenian Sea, showing off her luster in every shade of blue (24).

Haven’s work as a nautical archaeologist enables the author to structure an archaeological thriller, and Penner weaves the two timelines together through Haven’s research about Mari and Holmes. Haven’s emotional journey as she processes her father’s death and helps Savina embrace her lineage foregrounds Reckoning With History and Heritage as a central theme in the story. Haven and Enzo’s romance helps her regain her joy after the loss of her father. In standing up to Conrad, negotiating a more favorable contract with HPI, resisting pressure from Savina to accelerate her relationship with Enzo, and, above all, prioritizing her values over wealth, she emphasizes the novel’s thematic interest in the intergenerational struggle for women’s independence.

Holmes Foster is Mari’s love interest. His appearance offers immediate clues that he is a sailor, including “his low ponytail, his wide-legged trousers, and the tar stains on his palms” (41). Penner’s descriptions of Holmes often reference his dirty, calloused hands to underscore the differences between him and the prosperous Corso, whom Mari is expected to marry but doesn’t love.

Holmes’s primary trait and driving motivation is his devotion to his beloved. He composes adoring letters to Mari and damages his ship to buy her time at the risk of his own life. Although he commits a serious crime by sabotaging the Aquila, Penner characterizes Holmes as morally scrupulous, acting according to his own ethical standard. Even before he learns of the Mazza brothers’ plot for Positano, he’s reluctant to work for them because of their lack of ethics, only staying in their employ so that he can remain close to Mari. As he writes to Mari in his letter: “I’d escape them and go elsewhere, to another country altogether, but…there is you” (44). Holmes’s courage, devotion, and willingness to risk everything for Mari’s sake emphasize the novel’s thematic exploration of The Power of Love and Sacrifice.

Holmes’s role as a sailor supports the novel’s blend of historical fiction and romance. For example, Penner uses his perspective to build up suspense and depict the perils faced by early 19th-century sailors: “Suddenly, another swell rose beneath the brig, and they were all thrown forward, landing on their hands and knees. A crack of thunder followed” (184). His meeting with Imelda sets the stage for the climax, and he secures the traditional happy ending by stopping Mari from sacrificing her life. In addition, Holmes’s diary survives centuries after his lifetime, bridging the narrative’s dual timelines and playing an instrumental role in Haven’s research into the Aquila and Mari’s fate.

Enzo Rossi is Haven’s love interest and the owner of Positano Underwater Adventures, a business that offers scuba dive excursions to tourists. Haven’s narration describes him as “an outrageously good-looking Italian man” (130) with “wavy, almost-black hair” (119) and “dark, coffee-colored eyes” (120). These descriptions make her immediate attraction to him clear.

Enzo is a hardworking, resilient man who draws motivation from his family’s history of hardship. Because his family struggled financially after his father’s death, he works hard to develop and maintain his business. Instead of allowing these difficulties and his sister’s death to embitter him, Enzo maintains a joyful attitude towards life, noting: “I don’t take anything too seriously, Haven. I worked too hard for my business, my freedom. I want to enjoy it” (137). Enzo also has a passionate side, which he demonstrates through his relationship with Haven. Enzo’s strong work ethic, playful personality, and passionate nature win Haven’s heart.

Enzo’s relationship with Haven helps her on both professional and personal levels. His partnership is essential to the protagonist’s underwater discoveries, especially the Aquila’s wreck. The chemistry between the two characters intensifies the romance element of the story as Haven’s reaction to him shifts her characterization. Enzo awakens a passion in Haven that the rational, career-minded scientist has never experienced before. She reveals: “I craved him so bad—even now, making coffee in the kitchen—that I thought I might ignite” (211). The couple’s reunion in Chapter 38 grants the 21st-century timeline a happy ending, leaving their resolution open-ended compared to Mari and Holmes’s, which shows the 18th-century couple married and with children. Savina attempts to pressure Haven to marry Enzo, but Haven affirms that “nothing about this moment was Savina’s doing” when she and Enzo share a kiss at the end of the story (319). The author preserves the authenticity of Haven’s connection with Enzo and underlines the importance of women’s independence by allowing the couple’s relationship to evolve naturally.

Matteo Mazza is the head of the powerful Fratelli Mazza merchant company and the antagonist of the 19th-century timeline. He and his younger brother, Massimo, run “Naples’s richest—and least principled—shipping company” (11), and they have “the same broad shoulders, the same pointed chin” (79). The Mazza brothers are infamous throughout southern Italy, and Matteo is especially greedy, duplicitous, and ruthless. He allies himself with pirates, smuggles black-market goods, and abducts six-year-old Lia because he thinks she has magical powers that can make him even wealthier. He owns over 36 vessels, and the unethical conditions endured by the sailors on these ships reflect his wickedness, as Holmes notes in his diary: “Flogging the crew for minor infractions. There are even rumors of tying men to the transom and dragging them. Where do the Mazza brothers find such barbaric men? Our wages are late, too, sometimes by as much as a week, when I’ve already left on my next voyage” (246). Matteo’s relentless avarice, cruelty, and power make him a formidable opponent.

As the novel’s antagonist, Matteo makes significant contributions to the structure and themes. Penner underscores the intergenerational struggle for women’s freedom by demonstrating the destructive impact of men’s greed, as embodied by the Mazza brothers. Matteo imprisons Imelda and forces her to find treasure for him, and he vows to “get every woman in this pathetic village” so that he can have even more sea witches under his control (115). Matteo’s abduction of Imelda when Mari was a child shapes the protagonist’s characterization, and the story’s inciting incident occurs when Corso informs the merchant that there are more sea witches. Matteo’s villainy leads to many of Mari’s most impactful choices and the novel’s most suspenseful scenes; he poses such a threat to Positano and the women’s liberty that Mari sinks Holmes’s ship and is willing to give her own life to stop him.