The Unnamed Narrator in "Black-Eyed Women"

The narrator of "Black-Eyed Women" remains unnamed throughout the story, and at first, even her gender is not clear. She works as a ghostwriter, writing the life stories of people who became famous in tragic ways. She is haunted by her memories of her past, especially her brother's death. Her brother was killed by pirates when he tried to save her from being taken from their refugee boat. Her present character is defined by watching her brother die and by being raped at the hands of pirates while the entire boat, her parents included, watched. She avoids sunlight and does not like intimacy because of this event. She lives with her mother (also unnamed) and they both have a passion for words, but the narrator prefers the silence of writing to oral storytelling. She is visited by the literal ghost of her dead...