Shlomo Neuman / Momik
The character appears in all four sections of the novel but he is the protagonist in the first two stories. He is a young boy named Momik in the first section living in Israel during the 1950s. He learns about the Holocaust and that he is a child of survivors who resettled in Israel. He struggles with understanding the trauma of the survivors which he intends to convey through writing. In the subsequent section, he is older and an author trying to find his voice in the literary field. In the following stories, he becomes the narrator and editor as the character Shlomo Neuman.
Bruno Schulz
The famous Polish writer is a character in the second section of the novel however the character is a fictionalized version. He crosses paths with Momik/Neuman who takes him on a literary journey in finding his voice. The alternative life of Schulz sees him survive the tragedy of the real-life author during the Second World War.
Anshel Wasserman
He is introduced as Momik’s grandfather in the first section after he joins Momik’s family in Jerusalem. He has been presumed dead in the Nazi death camps but instead was in an asylum. Momik is curious to know his stories during the war but only gets a chance to understand his experiences through his story. Thus, as an adult, Momik narrates his story in the third section when he was in the Nazi concentration camps. He was a writer of children’s literature, a skill he uses to survive the camp as he entertains the camp commander.
