Summer Wives - Characters

SPOILERS!!!

 

These are the characters in the novel for further reference:

• Miranda Schuyler/Thomas is the main character in the novel. She goes to Wynthrop Island when her mother marries Hugh Fisher. Her father died in the war. On the island Miranda develops a close relationship with Isobel, her stepsister, and she meets and falls for Joseph Vargas. That summer ends up with her new stepfather murdered and Joseph arrested for prison. Miranda and her mother fall out and reamin estranged for years. During those years Miranda becomes an actress, and she eventually marries a film director, a man much older than she is. The director turns out to be cruel, and Miranda returns to the island after she loses the child she was expecting when her husband causes an accident. During her stay on the island Miranda learns the truth about the murder, and she helps Joseph to escape. Then she gets him and pardon, and at the end of the book Miranda is expecting a baby and Joseph returns to her.
• Joseph Vargas is the son of the lightkeeper. He is actually the son of Hugh Fisher. Joseph accepts the blame for the murder of Hugh Fisher to save his mother from prison. When he hears that she is dying of cancer, he breaks out of prison and goes to the island. After his mother's death he escapes on the boat that Miranda bought for her brother, and he sends her postcards from every port. When Miranda gets him a pardon, he returns to the island. 
• Isobel Fisher is Miranda's stepsister. Isobel is capricious and vibrant with energy. She feels very possessive towards Joseph, and we discover that her interest in Joseph is not romantic. He is her brother. In 1951 Isobel is engaged to Clay Monk, but she breaks off the engagement. At the end of the book Isobel starts spending more and more time with Clay as his marriage is in a shambles.
• Bianca Medeiro is seduced by Hugh Fisher when she is seventeen. She is full of love but then Hugh tells her that she is going to marry Abigail Dumont. Realising that she needs to do something about the situation Hugh has put her in she seduces Pascoal Vargas, her cousin's fiancé, and when she tells him that she is pregnant, Vargas marries her. Bianca continues her affair with Hugh after the marriage. She has Joseph, and in 1951 when she hears that Hugh is having a child with his new wife, she kills him.
• Hugh Fraser is the rich man who gets Bianca pregnant in 1931. He marries Miranda's mother, and that summer he loses his life when Bianca kills him. 
• Francine Fisher is Miranda's mother. 
• Carroll Goring is MIranda's cruel husband. He is a film director. 
• Hugh Fisher Jr is Miranda's brother.
• Abigail Dumont is Hugh's exwife and Isobel's mother. When Miranda is disowned by her mother, Abigails takes her to France and gives her a home. Abigail dies of a heart attack five years later. 
• Clayton Monk was Isobel's finacé, but she broke up with him. He married the doctor's daughter, but the marriage was not happy, and in 1969 they planned to divorce when their children left home for university.
• Livy Huxley is Clay's wife.
• Francisca Medeiro is Bianca's cousin. She was engaged to Pascoal Vargas, but Bianca seduced him when she realised that she was prengnat. Francisca died in a boat accident. 
• Pascoal Vargas is the lighthouse keeper and Bianca's husband. 
• Maria Medeiro is the owner of the general store. She has three daughter, and Bianca is the daughter of her sister, who died of typhoid fever when Bianca was three. 
• Manuelo Medeiro is Maria's husband.
• Laura Medeiro is the daughter of the general store's owners.
• Brigitte is one of the artists staying in the colony that Greyfriars becomes in 1969.
• Tom Donnelly is the local builder. 
• Felicity is one of the artists staying in the colony that Greyfriars becomes in 1969.
• Patty is one of the artists staying in the colony that Greyfriars becomes in 1969.
• Frank Santorini and Johnny are the marshalls who are after Joseph.

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