The Magician's Elephant characters

Appears from the start

An orphan in the city of Baltese, being raised by the old soldier Vilna Lutz and trained for a military life. Peter has been told that his mother and baby sister died, but a fortune-teller's answer revives his hope that the sister may still be alive.

First appears in chapter 4

Peter's younger sister, living in an orphanage and known there only as Adele. She has no conscious memory of Peter, yet dreams of an elephant coming to carry her away and senses that someone is looking for her.

First appears in chapter 2

A tired elephant abruptly transported from her own warm country into a winter city by a failed stage trick. Frightened, homesick, and confined by humans, she becomes the unlikely answer to Peter's search for his sister.

Appears from the start

An aging soldier who is raising Peter in poverty and training him for a military life. He is ill and rigidly committed to his plans for the boy, and he insists that Peter's infant sister died even when Peter begins to question that account.

First appears in chapter 2

A performer whose attempt to produce flowers at the opera house instead brings an elephant crashing through the roof. Imprisoned after the disaster, he is bewildered by his own magic and burdened by the suffering it caused.

First appears in chapter 2

A noblewoman attending the magician's performance when the elephant falls onto her. The accident badly injures her legs, and she demands an explanation from the jailed magician, who can offer none that repairs the harm.

First appears in chapter 5

A police officer who lives below Peter and hears the boy pacing overhead. Leo is curious, patient, and willing to take Peter's impossible hope seriously when the adults responsible for the boy will not.

First appears in chapter 6

Leo Matienne's wife, who longs for a child and keeps faith with possibilities her husband cannot prove. She is willing to treat Peter's hope as something deserving care rather than dismissal.

First appears in chapter 4

A nun at the orphanage where Adele lives. Sister Marie tries to protect the girl and listens carefully to Adele's persistent dreams of an elephant.

Appears from the start

A mysterious woman who reads Peter's fortune in a tent. Asked whether his sister lives, she answers that the girl is alive and that an elephant will lead Peter to her, setting his search in motion.

First appears in chapter 9

A wealthy resident of Baltese who takes charge of the elephant after the animal's arrival captivates the city. Her grand household gives the elephant shelter but also turns a frightened creature into a public marvel.