High Fidelity characters

Appears from the start

The owner of a struggling London record shop, in his mid-thirties and newly left by his girlfriend Laura. He organizes experience through records, lists, and carefully judged taste, but is much less disciplined about work or intimacy. Her departure sends him back through the history of his most painful breakups in search of an explanation.

Appears from the start

Rob's girlfriend at the start of the breakup. She is a lawyer with a demanding career and has shared a home with him. She has just left, but their money, belongings, and long history keep the separation from being clean or final.

Appears from the start

One of Rob's two employees at the record shop. Loud, argumentative, and merciless about other people's musical taste, he turns ordinary shop conversations into performances and disputes.

Appears from the start

Rob's quieter employee and fellow music obsessive. Reserved and socially awkward, he usually yields space to Barry's noise but has interests and abilities that Rob has barely bothered to notice.

Also known as Ray

First appears in chapter 3

A man who once lived upstairs from Rob and Laura and has now become part of Laura's life. His interest in spiritual practices and calm self-presentation make him an especially irritating rival in Rob's imagination.

First appears in chapter 3

Laura's close friend, who also knows Rob well enough to confront him. She is protective of Laura but remains one of the few people willing to tell Rob what is actually happening rather than indulge his preferred version.

First appears in chapter 20

An American singer-songwriter visiting London. Rob admires her records before meeting her, then discovers a direct and approachable person behind the breakup songs he has treated as emotional evidence.

Appears from the start

Rob's earliest girlfriend and the first name on his private list of defining breakups. Their school-age relationship ended abruptly, leaving him with an old story about rejection that he has never checked against adult reality.

Appears from the start

One of Rob's teenage girlfriends. He remembers her mainly through his own sexual frustration and the grievance he constructed when their relationship ended.

Appears from the start

A former girlfriend included in Rob's list of major romantic injuries. His recollection treats the breakup as something done to him, a version he intends to revisit.

Appears from the start

A glamorous former girlfriend whose sophistication made Rob feel admitted to a more exciting social world. Her later rejection remains central to his sense that he has repeatedly been judged inadequate.

Appears from the start

The former partner Rob lived with before Laura. Their relationship began when both were recovering from rejection, and he remembers its ending as another item in his record of abandonment.

First appears in chapter 26

One of two teenagers caught stealing from Rob's shop. His abrasive manner gives Rob little reason to expect that he has any serious musical ambition.

First appears in chapter 26

Vince's companion in shoplifting and music-making. Along with Vince, he forces Rob to look beyond the pair's petty theft and listen to what they have created.