David

David is the novel's central character and protagonist. He is twelve years old as the story begins, living in a concentration camp with no idea of what his background is, where he belongs, or who his parents were. He does, however, have a strong sense of self, a sense of who he is and of his own identity, that manifests in a saying that he repeats over and over to himself, even closing his prayers with it. "I am David," he says, with the only information as to who that is coming from being his own inner sense of personal truth. That truth, narration reveals, is affirmed by the only friend David has ever known, the only parental figure he has ever consciously had - a fellow inmate named Johannes who, while he is still alive, instructs and guides David to a place of trust in his intuition...