Winfried Georg Sebald
In The Emigrants, the author, Winfried Georg Sebald, also plays the role of the narrator and tells the reader the various life stories of the four other main characters of the novel. Sebald presents the story in the style of a flashback in which he reminisces about the lives of the other four characters.
Dr Henry Selwyn
Dr Henry Selwyn is an emigrant from Lithuania to England. He has a difficult relationship with his wife, who also happens to be Sebald's landlady. He later shoots himself with a gun.
Paul Bereyter
Paul Bereyter was Sebald's teacher when he was a kid. He was a quiet individual and moved to France in his elder years. He also commits suicide but does it by choosing to be run over by a railway train.
Madame Landau
Madame Landau is a lady with whom Bereyter spends much of his time with while he is in France. Sebald finds out most of what he knows about Bereyter from her.
Ambros Adelwarth
Ambros Adelwarth is Sebald's great uncle who travelled the world in his youth. However, in his later years, he becomes depressed and is sent to a mental hospital where it is hinted that he becomes a masochist.
Cosmo Solomon
A wealthy American individual with whom Ambros travels the world. He goes crazy and is sent to a mental hospital.
Max Ferber
Max Ferber is a German-Jewish painter whom Sebald befriends in England. His experiences during the Holocaust are also narrated by Sebald.
