Grady Tripp

Grady Tripp is the novel’s narrator and protagonist. He is originally from Pennsylvania, and he attended college in California. His mother died when he was young, and several years later, his father (a war veteran likely suffering from PTSD) committed suicide. Grady was thusly raised by his grandmother. During the main narrative, Grady is in his mid-forties and works as a creative writing teacher at an unnamed Pittsburgh college. He has no children and has been married three times. His third wife leaves him after learning that he has been having an affair with Sara Gaskell, the college’s chancellor. Soon after his wife leaves him, he learns that Sara is pregnant and is unsure whether or not she will keep the pregnancy. Grady is unsure he wants to be a father, and he is also unsure if he wants to commit to a permanent relationship...