May Attaway

May Attaway is the main character and first person narrator of the novel. In the narrative present, May is 40 years old. She lives with her 80-year-old father Earl Attaway in Anneville, the town where she grew up. Together, May and Earl have made a life for themselves in their old family home in the Duck Woods neighborhood. When May’s mother Miranda got sick, May moved back to Anneville from New York City, “in part, to help care for [her] mother” (9). Not long later, however, Miranda passed away when she fell down the stairs one night. May has remained at her home in Duck Woods ever since.

May works for the local university. She is a gardener for the campus grounds. She spends the majority of her time here or at home. Although she likes her coworkers, Blake and Sue, she rarely interacts with them outside the...