The Warm Hands of Ghosts

Laura Iven, the first of two main point-of-view characters, is a Canadian nurse from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is steady, calm, and no-nonsense, believing in practicality and self-sufficiency. She even worked to put herself through nursing school when her father disapproved of the profession. Other characters look to her for guidance and stability during a crisis, and her brother, Freddie, wholeheartedly believes that she will know what to do if he can simply lead Winter safely to her.

Though Laura maintains an air of rigid self-control, she is haunted by her failures, made explicit by the presence of her mother’s ghost, whom she believes she failed to save after the harbor explosion. Laura’s mother, a devout Christian obsessed with Armageddon, raised Laura to fear the end of the world. Laura fatalistically believes the war is proof that the end is coming and has lost hope for the future. Her severe leg injury, sustained during a bombing, symbolizes The Impact of Grief and Trauma on her, as she continues to experience pain due to that wound and scars on her hands. Despite this, she is absolutely devoted to her brother and is willing to do whatever it takes to save him.