Summary

NOTE: Note: Pearl is not identified by name until much later, though it is clear from the beginning that she is a ghost.

The first section is titled Spring, 1946. The only chapter in this section is titled “The Sleep of the Dead.” The chapter opens with the word “LISTEN,” and a ghost girl named Pearl Brownlow beginning the story. She says Francisco “Frankie” Mazza spoke only Italian when her father left her at the orphanage the first time and that she did not speak for months when he left her there the next time. Frankie has some vague memories of her childhood, including an apartment attached to the shoe shop owned by her father, Gaspare. One day, she had heard a gunshot from her parents' bedroom. She opened the door...