Fleur Pillager

Fleur is the novel’s central character, although she is not necessarily the focus of the narrative for the entire length of the book. In several chapters, she is actually a secondary character, and in a few, she barely appears at all. She remains the novel’s protagonist, however, because even though she occasionally disappears from the action and none of the chapters are narrated in her voice, she is the prime motivator of the story being told. Also, it is her transformation over the course of the narrative that is the primary embodiment of the novel’s various themes.

That transformation is defined by Fleur’s psycho-emotional movement from being driven by a desire for revenge to living in peace with herself and with her actions once her revenge has been accomplished. She begins the novel on a literal journey to meet and eventually destroy the...