Characters
Sofia Esposito
Volcanologist at the Osservatorio Vesuviano, grew up in Pozzuoli
Sofia Esposito is a volcanologist at the Osservatorio Vesuviano, and she grew up in Pozzuoli. Lena Voss meets her at the Prefecture in Naples. Sofia sits with the light behind her and says little, and the room goes quiet before she speaks. Asked whether she can rule out a short-term change, she says no, and adds that she can’t say it will happen either. In her own monitoring room she is faster and sharper. For her, there is no single number beyond which everything would be clear. In 1984 her parents had to leave their home, for three days, they were told. It turned into almost two years, and afterward the shop no longer belonged to them.
First encounter
- First noticed: dark hair pinned up at the nape with a pencil, and a watch worn with the face on the inside of her wrist
- Speaks: briefly and matter-of-factly, addresses Lena formally (“Frau Voss”); her German is correct but not her first language; quote: “A volcano is not a smoke detector.”
- Object: the pencil in her hair; and the observatory’s dusty station wagon, which she drives herself
Connected to
- Lena VossOceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, following a falling line
- Lorenzo De SantisRegional civil protection, chairs the meeting at the Prefecture
- Matteo RinaldiThe nursing home’s daily routine all runs through him
- Paolo FerraraInfrastructure office, drew much of the zone map
- Naples and PozzuoliA city in a volcano’s hollow, on ground that’s rising
Spoiler-free. This describes the starting point of the book named, without its major twists or resolutions.