The eels of the Fens, which swim thousands of miles to spawn, serve as a metaphor for the mysterious, natural, and non-rational forces that underlie human life. Waterland—Graham Swift | We can read it for you wholesale
The narrator and protagonist. A history teacher who believes that to understand the present, one must look at the past, although his faith in history is shaken by personal tragedies. Waterland
A local boy killed early in the novel, whose death kicks off the "history" of the 1943 narrative. The eels of the Fens, which swim thousands