Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses substance use disorder.

Isabel is one protagonist of the text. She is a woman in her late thirties who is married to Dan. They have two children together, Violet and Nathan, and her brother, Robbie, lives in their apartment upstairs at the start of the novel. Isabel works for a magazine, booking photographers for featured articles. Although her job pays well, she recognizes that, with the growth of the internet, the print industry is struggling, and it is only a matter of time before she needs to find a new career. Additionally, she questions her relationship with Dan, wondering when a marriage becomes “irreparable” and when it is “too late” to fix it (164), ultimately divorcing him and moving to a home in the country in the novel’s final section.

Isabel is a dynamic character who changes throughout the course of the text, or, at the very least, begins to change. In the first two sections of the text, Isabel struggles with her daily life, to care for her children and to work her job. The first time she is introduced to the reader, she is looking out her apartment window at the scenes of the early morning.