Zoey Hennessey

Zoey is the novel’s protagonist, and she is propelled forward by her insatiable curiosity about the world, and in particular about the past life of her deceased mother, Paloma. Zoey comes to Mallow Island in part as a means of escaping her neglectful family in Oklahoma and in part as a means of rediscovering her past by inhabiting the same apartment that her mother lived in for several years. She is ebullient, kind, and at times overbearing, fiercely involved in the lives of the people around her and possessed of a kind of naïve belief in the goodness at the root of all people. This curiosity and good nature causes her to develop quick friendships with many of the other residents on Mallow Island, despite the fact that the people closest to her are often remarkably hesitant to open themselves up to relationships.

She begins...