What Comes After

Content Warning: This section contains references to domestic violence, sexual assault, death by suicide, and murder.

The novel’s primary protagonist, Isaac, undergoes a journey of internal change, which is the novel’s focus, though Evangeline and Jonah are also point-of-view characters. Isaac is a middle-aged high school chemistry teacher. Evangeline describes him as “tall and thin with an angular face, his pale eyes nearly vanishing on the page. […] Isaac seem[s] off-kilter, almost wobbly, as if a gust might topple him” (51). Because he’s soft-spoken and polite, Evangeline initially thinks he’s weak, but she soon realizes that she was mistaken. His calm appearance echoes his internal character. He insists on silence to make choices. A faithful attendee at Quaker meetings, Isaac often speaks at them, but, internally, he has never felt the movement of the Divine or of God. He has both soft places and areas of irrationality and rage. Until he confronts the aspects of his personality that cause him shame, he’s unable to navigate any of his relationships successfully.

Isaac’s relationships are all fraught, and his developing relationship with Evangeline mimics his internal growth. He offers her understanding, but they often find themselves in conflict. Although he provides safety and stability and welcomes her into his life and his home as a surrogate daughter, she triggers his anger and grief over the losses of his past relationships.