The Young Sudanese Woman
The young Sudanese woman is one of the two narrators of Foreign Soil’s opening story, “David.” At the beginning of “David,” she has just bought a red bicycle that bears the name “BARKLY STAR”…
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Asha (The Older Sudanese Woman)
In “David,” the older Sudanese woman, whose name is later revealed to be Asha, is a Sudanese refugee who moved to Australia to escape her country’s violent civil war. In flashbacks, the reader gradually learns…
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Harlem Jones
Harlem Jones is the eponymous main character of “Harlem Jones.” Harlem lives in London with Harlem’s mum, a first-generation Trinidadian immigrant, and with his older brother Lloyd (though Lloyd is in prison at the…
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Millie Lucas
In “Hope,” Millie Lucas is a 14-year-old girl from St. Thomas. She grows up in a rural village in the Cidar Valley with her family, including her mother Mrs. Lucas, her father Mr. Lucas…
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Willemina
In “Hope,” Willemina is an elderly seamstress who owns a sewing shop in Kingston. The shop fell into her hands when her former lover, a wealthy, married Haitian man, bought her it in order to…
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Winston Gray
In “Hope,” Winston Gray is Millie’s lover. He’s a young cane cutter from the rural region of Montego Bay, and he meets Millie toward the end of his work season when they cross baths…
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Ange
In “Foreign Soil,” Ange is a white hair stylist who leaves her native Australia to accompany her boyfriend, Mukasa, to his home country of Uganda. Ange loves Mukasa and resents her parents (Ange’s…
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Mukasa
In “Foreign Soil,” Mukasa is Ange’s boyfriend; he’s a doctor from Uganda. Ange’s mum and Ange’s dad disapprove of their relationship because Mukasa is Black and Ange is white. After Ange moves with Mukasa…
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Ava
Ava is the young narrator of the story “Shu Yi.” She lives with her family in a predominantly white Australian suburb. Ava is Black but resents it—her Blackness sets her apart from her peers, who…
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Shu Yi
In “Shu Yi,” Shu Yi is a young Chinese girl who is a new student at Ava’s elementary school. The other kids, apparently parroting the racist, xenophobic rhetoric they’ve picked up from their parents…
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Solomon
In “Railton Road,” Solomon is a young college graduate whose been teaching Black History classes to young Black revolutionaries at Railton Road, a London squat house the Black Panthers have taken over. At first, Solomon…
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Delores
In “Gaps in the Hickory,” Delores is an old woman who lives in New Orleans. Delores is transgender—she used to live in rural Mississippi and identify as a man named Denver. Back in Mississippi, Denver…
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De Frankie
In “Railton Road,” De Frankie is a well-known leader with the London Panthers. He’s a radical, controversial figure within the movement; though he’s garnered support among celebrities and other public figures, he has a checkered…
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Izzy
In “Gaps in the Hickory,” Izzy is Delores’s former wife, Jeanie’s mother-in-law, Jackson’s mother, and Carter and Lucy’s grandmother. She dies shortly before the story’s present, and Carter and Delores take…
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Nathanial Robinson
In “Big Islan,” Nathanial Robinson is a port worker who lives in Kingston, Jamaica, with his wife, Clarise. At first, Nathanial is happy with his life and doesn’t understand why Clarise is so determined…
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Asanka
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Asanka is a young Sri Lankan boy who, in the story’s present, is being held at the Villawood Immigration Detention Center in Sydney. In flashbacks, the reader learns that…
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Loretta
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Loretta is a volunteer at the Villawood Immigration Detention Center in Sydney. She used to be a lawyer there and was passionate about her work, but she quit after…
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Mirabel
In “Aviation,” Mirabel is a young widow who is still grieving her husband Michael, who died a few years ago in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Mirabel struggles to work through the trauma of…
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Antonio
In “Aviation,” Antonio is a caseworker assigned to find Sunni emergency foster care after Sunni’s maa is taken into custody following an altercation with a woman she felt was discriminating against her. Antonio values the…
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Sunni
In “Aviation,” Sunni is a young Sikh boy who requires emergency foster care after Sunni’s maa is taken into custody following an altercation with a woman at a store. Ever since the September 11 terrorist…
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The Unnamed Writer
In “The Sukiyaki Book Club,” the unnamed writer is the author currently writing Avery’s story. The book doesn’t explicitly state this, but the unnamed writer seems to be a stand-in for Maxine Beneba Clarke…
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Avery
In “The Sukiyaki Book Club,” Avery is a young girl who gets stuck upside down on the monkey bars; she spends the entirety of the story panicking and trying to find a way to call…
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Ava’s Mum
Ava’s mum is the mother of Ava, the narrator of the story “Shu Yi.” As a Black mother raising Black children in a predominantly white Australian suburb, Ava’s mum has worked hard to ingratiate…
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Carter
In “Gaps in the Hickory,” Carter is Jeanie and Jackson’s child, Izzy and Delores’s grandchild, and Lucy’s older sibling. He presents as a young boy but is transgender and seems to identify…
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Ahmed’s Mum
In “David,” Ahmed’s mum is the mother of Ahmed, the young Sudanese woman’s former partner. She’s also the grandmother of Nile, who is the woman and Ahmed’s child. Throughout the story, Ahmed’s…
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Nile
In “David,” Nile is the young Sudanese woman and Ahmed’s young son. At the beginning of the story, the young Sudanese woman has just bought a bicycle and is looking forward to taking rides…
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David
In “David,” David is Asha’s son. In the story, Asha recalls how Masud, a man from Asha’s village in Sudan, made David a bike from metal scraps. David loved the bike and rode…
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Masud
In “David,” Masud is a man from Asha’s village in Sudan. Through flashbacks, the reader learns that Masud made Asha’s young son, David, a bike from bike from scrap metal. David loved the…
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Amina
In “David,” Amina is Asha’s friend in Sudan—they live in the same village. Amina is also Masud’s daughter. It’s Amina who informs Asha that enemy soldiers have invaded their village and that she…
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Lloyd
In “Harlem Jones,” Lloyd is Harlem Jones’s brother. He’s in prison for beating his girlfriend, a fact that Harlem’s mum can’t bring herself to accept—so she lies and tells people he’s working with relatives…
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Harlem’s Mum
In “Harlem Jones,” Harlem’s mum is a first-generation Trinidadian immigrant. She’s a fierce and protective woman. When the police come to the Jones residence to interrogate Harlem about threats he made against a job…
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Toby
In “Harlem Jones,” Toby is Harlem Jones’s friend. They attend a rally over the officer-involved shooting of Mark Duggan and throw Molotov cocktails, at which point the peaceful protest turns violent. Toby and Harlem…
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Mr. Lucas
In “Hope,” Mr. Lucas is Millie Lucas’s father. He lives with his family in a rural village and supports them with his banana crops. He plants extra crops in order to raise enough money…
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Mrs. Lucas
In “Hope,” Mrs. Lucas is Millie’s mother. She raises Millie and Millie’s siblings. After Millie gives birth to her son, Eddison William, Millie’s father offers to take the baby back to Cidar Valley and…
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Eddison William
In “Hope,” Eddison William is Millie and Winston’s baby. Millie loves her baby immediately and doesn’t seem to consider how he will hamper her ability to make a better life for herself. Winston’s reaction…
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Lucinda
In “Foreign Soil,” Lucinda is a domestic servant who has worked for Mukasa’s family for years. At first, she and Ange don’t interact much, as whenever Mukasa is there, he speaks to Lucinda in…
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Ange’s Mum
In “Foreign Soil,” Ange’s mum disapproves of Ange being in a relationship with Mukasa, who is Black. She and Ange’s dad don’t hide their feelings on the matter, which creates tension in Ange…
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Ange’s Dad
In “Foreign Soil,” Ange’s dad disapproves of Ange being in a relationship with Mukasa, who is Black. he and Ange’s mother don’t hide their feelings on the matter, which creates tension in Ange…
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Mr. James
In “Shu Yi,” Mr. James is the principal of Ava’s elementary school. The students nickname him “Jailhouse James” because he’s so strict. Yet, when Ava’s mum goes to Mr. James to tell him about…
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Mr. Wilkinson
In “Shu Yi,” Mr. Wilkinson is Ava and Shu Yi’s teacher. He wears band T-shirts instead of dress clothes and has long hair. He has considerably more progressive views than many of the people…
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The Kept Woman
In “Railton Road,” De Frankie tasks Solomon with helping him apprehend a Black woman that De Frankie’s people have been monitoring for the past year—they know she’s seeing a white man, something De Frankie feels…
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Ella
In “Gaps in the Hickory,” Ella is Delores’s neighbor in New Orleans. She’s a young Black girl whose family isn’t all that well off. Delores sends her home with food when it seems the…
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Jeanie
In “Gaps in the Hickory,” Jeanie is Jackson’s wife, Izzy’s daughter-in-law, and Carter and Lucy’s mother. She loves her son Carter and knows about Carter’s transgender identity. She doesn’t openly reject Carter’s…
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Jackson
In “Gaps in the Hickory,” Jackson is Izzy and Delores’s son, Jeanie’s husband, and Carter and Lucy’s father. When he was young, his father Denver left the family. Jackson was told that…
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Lucy
In “Gaps in the Hickory,” Lucy is Izzy and Delores’s grandchild, Jackson and Jeanie’s child, and Carter’s younger sister. Carter likes to try on Lucy’s clothing, a behavior that alerts Izzy to…
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Clarise
In “Big Islan,” Clarise is Nathanial’s wife. They live in Kingston, Jamaica, but Clarise wants more out of life. She’s been teaching Nathanial the alphabet with the hope that he’ll get a promotion or…
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Dinesh
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Dinesh was Asanka’s friend in Sri Lanka. They were both forced to serve as child soldiers with the Tamil Tigers. As punishment for running away, the Tigers locked…
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The Stilt Fishermen
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” the story’s main character, Asanka, sees a group of stilt fishermen when he and the other asylum seekers are fleeing war-torn Sri Lanka on a fishing boat. The…
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Sam
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Sam is Loretta’s husband. Their marriage is in poor shape, though. Loretta wants children and Sam doesn’t. He urged her to quit her job as a social worker…
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Chaminda
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Chaminda is a Sri Lankan man who befriends Asanka when they’re both passengers on a fishing boat full of people seeking asylum. During the journey, and after, when they’re…
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Viv
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Viv is Loretta’s former colleague at the center. It’s Viv who calls Loretta to tell her that Chaminda died. The story also hints that Viv played an indirect…
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Michael
In “Aviation,” Michael is Mirabel’s late husband; he died in the September 11 terrorist attacks, and Mirabel is still working through her grief in the aftermath of his death. Before he died, Michael and…
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Sunni’s Maa
In “Aviation,” Sunni’s maa is taken into custody after supposedly threatening a woman at the store who she accused of staring at her. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Sunni and his mother, who…
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Bill and Susie
In “Aviation,” Bill and Susie are an elderly couple who live next door to Sunni and Sunni’s maa. They used to watch Sunni while his mom was at work, but after the September 11…
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Maryam
In “The Sukiyaki Book Club,” Maryam is the unnamed writer’s young daughter. She lives with her mother and brother, Markie, in a cramped apartment next to the train station. She’s been having nightmares…
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Markie
In “The Sukiyaki Book Club,” Markie is the unnamed writer’s young son. He lives with his mother and younger sister, Maryam, in a cramped apartment next to the train station. Recently, a teacher…
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Mustache
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Mustache is the name Asanka gives one of two boatmen in charge of a group of asylum seekers fleeing Sri Lanka aboard a fishing boat. He and his fellow…
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Ponytail
In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Ponytail is the name Asanka gives one of two boatmen in charge of a group of asylum seekers fleeing Sri Lanka aboard a fishing boat. He and his fellow…
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Liv
In “Railton Road,” Liv is a young Black woman staying at Railton Road, a squat house the Black Panthers have taken over. When De Frankie visits Railton Road to interview Solomon to be the Minister…
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Minor Characters
Ahmed
In “David,” Ahmed is the young Sudanese woman’s former partner and the father of their child, Nile. She doesn’t think much of him now but is grateful that he at least taught her a lot about bicycles.
The Goods Driver
In “Hope,” the goods driver delivers sewing supplies to Willemina’s sewing shop when they arrive at the port. He visits the sewing shop and attempts to sexually assault Millie, but Willemina interferes just in time, attacking and disarming him.
Melinda Meyer
In “Shu Yi,” Melinda Meyer is one of Ava and Shu Yi’s classmates. She’s apparently adopted her family’s racist views of immigrants and, along with her other classmates, bullies Shu Yi. When
Avery’s Dad
In “The Sukiyaki Book Club,” Avery’s dad is struggling to support his young daughter Avery in the aftermath of Avery’s mother’s sudden death in a car accident. According to a neighbor, he can’t bring himself to look at Avery because she so resembles her mother.
Avery’s Mum
In “The Sukiyaki Book Club,” Avery’s mum has recently died in a car crash; Avery was a passenger in the car but survived. In the aftermath of her death, Avery’s father struggles to support Avery while coping with his own grief.
The Goods Driver
In “Hope,” The goods driver delivers sewing supplies to Willemina’s sewing shop when they arrive at the port. He visits the sewing shop and attempts to sexually assault Millie, but Willemina interferes just in time, attacking and disarming him.
Dean
In “Foreign Soil,” Dean is Ange’s coworker at the salon she worked at in Australia before following Mukasa to Uganda.
Penelope
In “Foreign Soil,” Penelope is Ange’s boss at the salon she worked at in Australia before following Mukasa to Uganda.
Big Ted
In “Aviation,” Big Ted is Mirabel and Michael’s dog. He lives with Mirabel and still seems to miss Michael.
