Maria (Maja) Norberg

Maja, the protagonist of the novel and first person narrator, is a precocious 18-year-old student at the prestigious Djursholm Upper Secondary School in Stockholm. She is very popular with her classmates before she gets involved with Sebastian. She soon reveals the "whodunit" of the shooting, so the narrative explores the reasoning behind of events. Maja's narrative searches for answers to how she became involved with the Fagermans and how that led to her involvement in the school shooting. In the process of her searching for answers, her narrative exposes a society in crisis, which is also at the heart of the novel.

Sebastian Fagerman

Perhaps Samir's description of Sebastian says it all: without his father's money, he is nothing. Sebastian has few interests, no close friends, nor are he and his older brother friends. His father's emotional abuse sets him on a path of self-destruction. He...