Elsa
Elsa is a seven-year-old girl and is learning about the life of the people around her. At home, there is a constant buzz of sound and arguing, as Elsa’s parents are filing for a divorce. Instead of being at home, she enjoys spending time with her grandmother and listening to the stories she tells her and the life she has lived. She has to learn to fend for herself when her grandmother suddenly dies, leaving behind a bunch of letters for her old friends that Elsa has to deliver.
Grandmother
Elsa’s grandmother is very close to Elsa, though she isn’t close to Elsa’s mother, which is why they are constantly arguing. The reason they aren’t close is because she works as a doctor, thus not having a lot of time to spend at home together with her family as her children grew up. She wishes she could have a bigger part of her daughter’s life, though she realizes that it is too late. Instead, she spends time together with her granddaughter.
Britt-Marie
Britt-Marie is one of the people Grandmother wrote a letter to before she died, and Elsa had to giver her the letter. Elsa though that she was a very stick, angry woman, but learns about her as she goes to give the letter. Britt-Marie had a very difficult childhood and her marriage is falling apart as her husband has a mistress and hardly spends any time together with Britt-Marie. Her life, such as many of the lives in the book, help Elsa realize that there is more to people than what meets the eye.
