Character List
296 Words
Character List
THE AFGHAN FAMILY
Zahra Ghafoori—A widow who worked as a companion to the late matriarch of the Konari family in Tehran. Zahra’s mother was Iranian, her father Afghan.
Mahmoud Ghafoori—Zahra’s deceased husband.
Ahmad Ghafoori—Zahra and Mahmoud’s five-year-old son.
Firzun Khan—Zahra’s first cousin. He and Zahra were brought up together in the family house in Afghanistan.
THE KONARI FAMILY
Abbas Konari—Karim’s father and former employee of an American oil company in Tehran. He and his wife Esmat have recently moved to the USA.
Esmat Konari—Abbas’s wife and owner of a department store in Tehran as well as a fashion label and a number of fashion boutiques in Iran’s major cities.
Karim Konari—Their son, a thirty-four-year-old architect, educated in the Iran and the USA.
Soraya—Karim’s younger sister who lives in Boston, USA.
Nadir—Soraya’s husband and father of their two sons.
Nasim—An old friend of the family. Nasim’s husband Rashid was executed by the new regime in November 1979 for ‘crimes against the State’. Nasim now lives in Los Angeles with her parents.
Tahmineh—Housekeeper to the Konari family in Tehran. She lives in an apartment at the back of the Konaris’ house with her husband, and niece Shirin.
Amir—Tahmineh’s husband, a driver and odd-job man.
THE O’ROURKE FAMILY
Lawrence O’Rourke—Businessman and British immigrant to the USA and the Caribbean.
Beulah O’Rourke—Lawrence’s part-Creole wife.
Lauren O’Rourke—Lawrence’s twenty-four-year-old daughter, a psychologist.
Seamus O’Rourke—Lawrence’s twenty-six-year-old son who works in the family business.
THE ASHRANI FAMILY
Leila Ashrani—An Iranian widow who befriends Zahra in Sydney.
Hamid Ashrani, also known as Harry Ashton—Leila’s younger son who lives in the United States.
Mehran Ashrani—Leila’s older son who has lived in Australia for a few years.
Tula Ashrani—Mehran’s wife.
Darius and Lili—Their young children
OTHER CHARACTERS
Nousha Kashani—Firzun’s ‘fiancée’.
Nigel Palmer—Harry’s partner.
Bahram—Karim’s business partner in their architectural firm.
- Writer
