Message in a Bottle: Booktrack Edition characters

Appears from the start

A divorced Boston newspaper columnist raising her son, Kevin. During a seaside holiday she finds an intensely personal love letter sealed in a bottle, and her curiosity about its unknown writer grows into a search that changes her carefully managed life.

Appears from the start

Theresa's twelve-year-old son. He lives primarily with his mother after his parents' divorce and is central to every decision she makes about travel, relationships, and the possibility of building a new home with someone.

First appears in chapter 2

Theresa's close friend and newspaper colleague, practical, persistent, and enthusiastic about the mysterious letter. She helps Theresa investigate its origin and encourages her to take emotional chances after the disappointment of divorce.

First appears in chapter 3

A North Carolina craftsman and sailor whose letters to his late wife, Catherine, carry his grief out to sea. Reserved and still shaped by loss, he is devoted to the coast, his work, and the memory of the marriage he expected to last.

First appears in chapter 4

Garrett's elderly father, a plainspoken widower who recognizes how thoroughly his son's grief has narrowed his life. He welcomes Theresa, offers both of them candid advice, and hopes Garrett can accept a future without denying his past.

First appears in chapter 4

Garrett's late wife and the addressee of the letters he casts into the ocean. Her death left him emotionally fixed in their marriage, and his continuing bond with her shapes both his attraction to Theresa and his fear of beginning again.