Grace Davitt

Grace Davitt is the main character and first-person narrator of the novel. She is seven years old at the novel’s start, and nine years old by the end of the novel.

Grace grows up with her mother, Anna, and father, Jonathan, in the Montpelier area of Vermont. Because they live so close to Lake Champlain, Anna takes Grace to the water almost every day. Trips to the lake, however, are not the only one of Anna’s particularities that shape Grace’s world. Rather, Grace spends almost all of her time with her mother. Therefore, she learns to rely upon Anna for order, structure, and understanding. Because Anna loves myths and fables, Grace also learns to hinge her sense of truth and reality on such tales. Though her father does not believe in anything, deeming Grace’s and Anna’s fantasies mere superstition, Grace clings to...