Our Infinite Fates

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death.

Evelyn is the text’s protagonist and primary narrator. She is a girl of 17 who has lived countless lifetimes over the last 1,000 years: Her earliest incarnation was as a Greek woman named Daphne in the year 986. Due to the terms of a deal she strikes with “the Mother,” she is unable to remember either the deal or the origin of her relationship with Calliope, the person she eventually comes to know as “Arden.” Evelyn is a name she gives herself in Lundenburg (London) in 1006, chosen because it sounds close to “devil”—what she becomes as a result of the deal. Aware that Arden remembers everything they have ever been through, Evelyn is haunted by her inability to remember their lives together, afraid that it is a sign of her carelessness. Evelyn feels that if she could remember, she might be able to understand why she and Arden seem destined to repeat the same murderous pattern over and over, and this sense of understanding would give her some comfort. She doesn’t realize that this is precisely why she cannot remember: The Mother is sustained, in part, by Evelyn’s suffering, and her not knowing—and believing herself to be somehow negligent or irresponsible—causes her more pain.