Maryna Zalezowski [Marina Zalenska]

Maryna is a 35-year-old Polish actress when the novel begins, acclaimed as the greatest actress in Poland. With ash-blonde hair and a somewhat melodramatic manner, she is a dynamic personality who attracts both men and women. From a poor family, Maryna was married at 16 to a German man almost 40 years her senior. Their child died in infancy and Maryna remarried a nominal Polish count, Bogdan Dembowski. Their only child Piotr is seven years old at the start of the novel. Maryna is naturally gifted with a strong empathic ability that she uses to "become" the characters she portrays, and occasionally employs in her relations with her husband and other significant people in her life.

Her natural restlessness and need to explore lead her to entertain the notion of going to America, and when she finally makes the decision, she becomes the unofficial leader of the...