The Life and Loves of a She Devil characters

Appears from the start

A tall, physically awkward wife and mother who has organized her life around her husband and children. Ruth is painfully aware that she does not resemble the kind of woman her husband admires. When he leaves her for Mary Fisher and dismisses her as a she-devil, she begins to treat that insult as permission to discard her old duties and remake her circumstances.

Appears from the start

Ruth's husband, an accountant whose comfortable suburban life depends heavily on her domestic work. Bobbo is vain, conventional, and impatient with Ruth, and he is conducting an affair with the successful novelist Mary Fisher.

Appears from the start

A wealthy writer of romantic fiction who lives in a picturesque seaside tower. Mary has fashioned a graceful public life around beauty, love, and literary success, but her affair with Bobbo brings Ruth and the untidy demands of his family into that carefully controlled world.

First appears in chapter 2

Ruth and Bobbo's daughter. Nicola is one of the two children whose everyday care has fallen chiefly to Ruth and whose needs become much harder for Bobbo to ignore after he leaves the family home.

First appears in chapter 2

Ruth and Bobbo's son. Like his sister Nicola, Andy is accustomed to his mother's constant care and becomes part of the practical burden that follows Bobbo into his new life.

First appears in chapter 27

Mary Fisher's elderly mother, who lives in an institution and has a difficult relationship with her daughter. She is less impressed by Mary's romantic self-image than Mary's admirers are, and her dependence makes the arrangements for her care a source of pressure.

First appears in chapter 30

Mary Fisher's capable household servant at the tower. Garcia helps preserve the orderly, secluded life Mary has built and must absorb the domestic complications created by Bobbo's arrival.

First appears in chapter 69

The judge assigned to Bobbo's criminal case. His authority over the proceedings makes his private weaknesses and susceptibility to influence consequential to Ruth's campaign.