Phoebe

Phoebe is the protagonist. Her character arc charts her transformation from despair and detachment to tentative hope and renewed engagement with life. At the beginning of the novel, she arrives at the Cornwall Inn not to attend a wedding but to end her life. Her decision is the culmination of years of cumulative losses: the death of her mother in childbirth, her father’s resulting depression, the breakdown of her marriage, and the emotional implosion that followed her husband Matt’s affair with her best friend. However, the true source of Phoebe’s despair is not just heartbreak, but a lifelong habit of self-silencing and internalised erasure. She has spent years not expressing her needs, not asking for help, and not claiming space in her own life.

The structure of the wedding week provides a scaffolding for Phoebe’s slow re-entry into the world. At first, she is...