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Haley, 68, self-appointed academic, onetime school teacher; widowed for over a year, depressed about solitary state and the ongoing process of aging. Paloma, 24, illegitimate child of English mother, Spanish father, raised in a patchwork fashion, mostly by non-relatives; sexually abused as a teenager, beautiful, bright, educated/self-educated, sophisticated, insecure, lacking in proper mentors at key points during her transition to adulthood. Bessie, 60, partially crippled survivor of the WWII blitz of London, foster mother to Paloma for her first eight years Nourrit, ±75, North African woman of uncertain provenance, a wise woman and mother figure for Paloma in Sevilla, Spain, from her 8th through 14th years Celestina, 35, a Spanish woman, once a servant of Paloma's grandmother; friend to Paloma during her six years in Sevilla Bill, 50, and Anneke, 48, owner-proprietors of a posh English country hotel; friends of Paloma based on visits with them prior to her bringing Haley to their place in 1997. Carlo, 31, and Giulia, 34, brother and sister, owners of a country hotel just north of Florence, Italy Others,
deceased by the time Haley met Paloma, who played Amparo (1910-1986), Paloma's paternal grandmother - and great-grandmother(!) - mistress of an upper class menage in Sevilla; protector of Paloma Chely (1953-1988), Paloma's mother and half-sister, ineffective, much abused during a short, tragic life Gustaf
(1920-1992), a Swedish academic, Paloma's stepfather, mentor, and abuser
* "de
Casablanca," Nourrit's official surname, given to her by a sympathetic
government worker reviewing her papers in 1939 when the new government
of Spain ordered all residents to obtain identification cards. |
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