CHARACTERS
This character’s limited presence is intentional; their emotional opacity prevents early recognition of a truth that would collapse the novel’s central misdirection.
Who is Gabriel Berenson?
This is the public place where Kathy tells Theo she is leaving him, forcing the final confrontation.
What is a restaurant?
This god, a son of Zeus, interceded with the Fates to allow Admetus to avoid death if someone would replace him.
Who is Apollo?
“How would you feel? The person you love most in the world has condemned you to die, through their own cowardice. That’s quite a betrayal.”
Who is Lazarus Diomedes?
Used by Theo, this type of therapy focuses on changing negative thought patterns and behaviors.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
This person recommended Theo to buy and read the play Alcestis.
Who is Jean-Felix?
This London residence is introduced as a crime scene but gradually revealed to be a site of prolonged psychological surveillance.
What is Alicia and Gabriel's house?
In the play "Alcestis", the heroine’s return from death depends on this underworld deity.
Who was Heracles?
“No one is born evil. As Winnicott put it, “A baby cannot hate the mother, without the mother first hating the baby.”
Who is Alex Michaelides?
This is the controversial treatment involving inducing seizures, which is mentioned as a potential option for Alicia
What is Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)?
This character helped Theo interpret Alicia's silence as a quiet fury at her husband, who was willing to let her die in his place.
Who is Professor Lazarus Diomedes?
The name of the suburban, exclusive, and wealthy residential London street where the central murder takes place.
What is The Bishop's Avenue?
The famous ancient Greek playwright of Athens who wrote the tragedy Alcestis, which serves as the novel's central framework
Who is Euripides?
"Once you name something, it stops you seeing the whole of it, or why it matters. You focus on the word, which is just the tiniest part, really, the tip of an iceberg."
Who is Alicia Berenson?
The term for a therapist's emotional reaction to a patient, which Theo greatly struggles with in Alicia's case
What is Countertransference?
This character commits the novel’s most consequential act of violence without firing a weapon, leaving no physical trace, only a psychological inevitability masked as care.
Who is Theo Faber?
This is the London park where Alicia experienced a formative and traumatic childhood memory with her father
What is Hampstead Heath?
In the play, this character delivers a furious speech blaming Admetus's parents for their cowardice, a sentiment Alicia channels through her art.
Who is Pheres (Admetus's father)?
“...we often mistake love for fireworks - for drama and dysfunction. But real love is very quiet, very still. It’s boring, if seen from the perspective of high drama. Love is deep and calm - and constant.”
Who is Ruth?
Jean-Felix describes Alicia's post-trauma state using this psychological term for the inability to feel pleasure
What is psychological mutism?
An aggressive patient at The Grove. She has been institutionalized for many years after murdering her mother and sister. Theo believes that she hates others because she did not receive love during her childhood, and she often antagonizes, threatens, and provokes therapists and patients alike.
Who is Elif?
This is the vacation destination in France where Gabriel and Alicia's marriage began to show its fatal cracks
What is Cassis?
A serious drama where a noble protagonist, often with a fatal flaw, experiences a downfall or disaster, leading to immense suffering or death, which evokes pity and fear in the audience, culminating in a purging of emotions known as catharsis
What is a tragedy (the drama/play/act kind, not an accident or something)?
"He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore."
Who is Sigmund Freud?
Christian, a fellow patient, suffers from this condition, believing his body is infested with insects.
What is delusional parasitosis (or Ekbom's Syndrome)?