A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summaries & Analyses
Quizzes
Reading Tools
Games
Meet the key characters, with insights into their roles, motivations, and relationships—spoiler-free.
Vincent is a pragmatic and fiercely independent young woman from Vancouver Island. After a tragic loss in her youth, she struggles to find a sense of rootedness or purpose. She takes a job at a luxury wilderness hotel, where a chance encounter with a wealthy financier fundamentally alters her life trajectory. She possesses a keen observational eye, which she exercises by filming five-minute videos of her everyday surroundings.
Half-Sister of Paul
Partner of Jonathan Alkaitis
Friend of Mirella
Coworker of Geoffrey Bell
Employee of Walter Lee
Acquaintance of Oskar
Jonathan is an immensely wealthy and successful financial manager who operates out of Manhattan. He projects an aura of extreme confidence and control, managing billions of dollars for high-net-worth clients globally. He offers Vincent a highly transactional arrangement to act as his wife, preferring to avoid deep emotional entanglements. He keeps the true mechanics of his massive investment operations closely guarded.
Paul is Vincent's older half-brother, a young man battling severe substance abuse issues. Though he studies finance, his true passion lies in musical composition. He frequently relies on others to clean up his mistakes and harbors a deep-seated jealousy of his sister's self-possession. His destructive choices routinely impact the people around him.
Half-Brother of Vincent
Acquaintance of Charlie Wu
Accomplice to Ella Kaspersky
Admirer of Annika
Employee of Walter Lee
Olivia is a dedicated painter who spent much of her life in relative obscurity and poverty before making a sudden, lucrative art sale in her older years. She is eager to secure her newfound financial stability and seeks to mingle with the financial elite. She carries clear memories of the 1950s art scene, which directly connect her to the Alkaitis family.
Client of Jonathan Alkaitis
Colleague of Lucas Alkaitis
Leon is a shipping executive for Neptune Logistics facing intense personal and professional stress. He seeks a quiet retreat at the Hotel Caiette to manage his anxiety about an impending corporate merger. He represents the everyday corporate worker striving to maintain stability in a volatile, unforgiving global market.
Ella is a determined and highly skeptical financial journalist. She is one of the few people publicly questioning the suspiciously consistent returns generated by Jonathan Alkaitis's firm. She relentlessly pursues the truth, making her a constant, irritating shadow to those who prefer not to answer hard questions.
Investigator of Jonathan Alkaitis
Employer of Paul
Mirella is a young woman who, like Vincent, married into extreme wealth. She provides a grounded perspective on the bizarre, isolating experience of living with limitless resources and endless social expectations.
Friend of Vincent
Wife of Faisal
Faisal is a wealthy Saudi prince who invests heavily with Jonathan Alkaitis. He uses his vast resources to secure a comfortable life for himself and his young wife, completely trusting the firm with his finances.
Husband of Mirella
Client of Jonathan Alkaitis
Claire is Jonathan Alkaitis's adult daughter. She holds a position in his financial firm and maintains a polite but icy distance from his new partner, whom she views as an intruder in their family.
Suzanne is the deceased first wife of Jonathan Alkaitis. She remains a powerful presence in his memory long after her passing. During her life, she understood the mechanics of his operations far better than he publicly admits.
Wife of Jonathan Alkaitis
Mother of Claire Alkaitis
Lucas is an artist struggling with a severe heroin addiction in the late 1950s. His vulnerability becomes the subject of a stark portrait that forever links him to the art world, long after his personal struggles consume him.
Older Brother of Jonathan Alkaitis
Model for Olivia
Harvey is a high-level business associate who helps manage the inner workings of the Alkaitis investment fund. He understands the true mechanics of the firm's operations and actively participates in maintaining its facade.
Employee of Jonathan Alkaitis
Coworker of Joelle
Joelle is a senior executive in Jonathan Alkaitis's financial empire. She spends long hours at the office, deeply entangled in the firm's daily operations while trying to balance her responsibilities as a mother.
Employee of Jonathan Alkaitis
Coworker of Harvey
Oskar is an employee working closely with Jonathan Alkaitis. He enjoys the massive financial perks of his job while deliberately ignoring the ethical red flags surrounding his daily assignments.
Employee of Jonathan Alkaitis
Admirer of Vincent
Charlie is the keyboardist for the local Toronto band Baltica. He is an aspiring musician whose path crosses with Paul during a night of reckless substance use, leading to lasting consequences.
Acquaintance of Paul
Bandmate of Annika
Annika is the beautiful and talented frontwoman of the band Baltica. She captures Paul's attention during a concert, though she remains entirely uninterested in his awkward advances.
Acquaintance of Paul
Bandmate of Charlie Wu
Simone is a relatively new employee at the financial firm. She observes the strange behavior of the senior executives with growing suspicion, picking up on the rising tension in the office long before fully understanding it.
Employee of Jonathan Alkaitis
Coworker of Claire Alkaitis
Geoffrey is a third mate on a massive international container ship. He is a seasoned seafarer who finds comfort in the structured, isolated life on the open ocean.
Coworker of Vincent
Marie is Leon's wife, a woman who values the financial stability they have spent decades building. She remains resilient even as sudden economic shifts threaten their comfortable lifestyle, supporting her husband through dramatic changes.
Wife of Leon Prevant
Michael is a former NYPD detective hired as the lead investigator for a corporate inquiry. He is blunt, thoroughly prepared, and prefers to strictly control the flow of information during his cases.
Associate of Leon Prevant
By Emily St. John Mandel
American Literature
View Collection
Books About Art
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Business & Economics
View Collection
Canadian Literature
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Psychological Fiction
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection