Ann Stilwell

Ann Stilwell is the protagonist and first-person narrator in The Cloisters. At the outset of the narrative, Ann leaves her hometown in Walla Walla, Washington, for New York City where she has a summer internship at the Met. In Manhattan, Michelle de Forte informs her that they no longer have use for her since Karl Gerber, whom she was meant to work with, has left for the summer. However, when the curator for The Cloisters, Patrick Roland, asks her to join their research team, Ann readily agrees, desperate to salvage her move to the East Coast. Ann attended university where her parents worked on the custodial staff. She longed to broaden her experiences and have a legitimate career in Medieval and Renaissance scholarship. Before his death, Ann’s father was an avid linguistic, stealing scraps of paper from the university waste bins to translate, and taught her...