Samantha Jane Preston

Samantha is the overarching first person narrator of the novel. Years after her mother Lillian Preston's death, Sam dedicates herself to catalogue her mother's work for a posthumous collection at the MoMA. As a young girl, Sam never knew her father, and grew accustomed to her mother's idiosyncratic artistic tendencies.

When Lillian begins dating a man named Ken, Sam believes him to be her birth father. When he and Lillian split, Sam is devastated. The truth about Ken's identity causes a small sever in her relationship with her mother. However, she eventually takes Lillian's side, and grows used to spending most her time with her mother alone.

As a child, Sam hates going on photo excursions with her mother. While at home though, she is unbothered by her mother's perpetual picture-taking and developing. When Nina features a series of photos of Sam in her underwear playing...