Irina

Irina is the main character and first person narrator of the novel. At the start of the novel, Irina is living in South England and working at a local bar. She lives by herself and spends the majority of her time bartending, partying, and intermittently working on her photography.

Irina has several artistic degrees. Over the years, she has developed her craft. In the present, she is most interested in photographing men who “other people think are ugly, or weird looking” (38). She does not do so because she has empathy for them and wants to reveal the models’ unconventional beauty. Rather, she does so in order to regain a sense of her own elusive self-worth.

One day, Irina gets an email from a curator named Jamie who works with Hackney Space gallery. Jamie has been following Irina’s career and website, and wants to feature some of her...