Jas Mulder

Jas Mulder is the first person narrator of the novel. When Jas is 10 years old, she becomes terrified that Dad will kill her rabbit for Christmas dinner. To prevent her rabbit's death, she prays that God will take her eldest brother Matthies instead. Then, two days before Christmas, the family learns Matthies has drowned in the lake while skating. Feeling guilty and confused, Jas longs for Matthies's return, hoping he will resurrect like Jesus in the Bible. In the year-and-a-half that follows her brother's death, Jas watches her parents grow more and more distant. Fearing her mother's suicide and her father's disappearance, Jas begins turning increasingly inward. She only feels safe in her relationships with her siblings, Hanna and Obbe. The three kings, as she calls them, often have meetings in Jas's room, talking about their parents and playing games where they explore their sexuality.

As her...