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    Characters from Part 4: San Lazzaro

    All Fade characters

    The singing patient

    A cheerful man in the park of San Lazzaro, the first person Louis sees there, who answers every question with another line of a song.

    Zampano

    The guard at San Lazzaro: strong, tanned, always in a bad mood, and the object of the receptionist’s affections. When he isn’t watching Louis, he is in the staff toilets.

    Gelsomina

    The receptionist at San Lazzaro, a lady in white with a strange smile, who keeps telling Louis to calm down and is in love with Zampano.

    The insect eater

    A frightened patient at San Lazzaro who won’t touch the food, which he believes is made of human flesh, and lives on insects instead.

    The nurse

    The busy, suspicious nurse in San Lazzaro’s sick bay, who is sure every patient is after his drugs.

    The librarian

    The keeper of San Lazzaro’s library, who insists patients ask her before taking a book.

    The patient at the chapel

    A patient who wanders outside the chapel asking who won the World Cup in 1968 and multiplying four-figure numbers in his head.

    Mario

    San Lazzaro’s cook, who shouts at anyone in his kitchen in German and serves Brussels sprouts.

    The priest

    The chaplain of San Lazzaro, who once did missionary work in France. White wine gives him a stomach ache; kir is a different matter.

    The meditating patient

    A patient practising yoga by the gardeners’ hut, a lotus flower who can’t quite concentrate.

    The doctor

    San Lazzaro’s psychiatrist, polite and regretful, who has formalities to follow before any patient can leave.

    Parx

    A grinning pyromaniac locked in cell 3 on the first floor, the only patient ever to escape San Lazzaro. Fire, he says, is the way of God.

    Salvatore

    The patient in cell 4, with the most intense stare Louis has ever seen and a feud with the man in cell 1.

    The patient in cell 1

    A man with bloodshot eyes who can’t stand his neighbour Salvatore, “this cretino”.

    The man in the attic

    A silent man standing in San Lazzaro’s attic with a cloth over his head, pointing at the floor.