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 "I almost had to think of everyone and everything as indecent, distance myself from the tears that would inevitably cloud up on the inside of the mask if I let them. I still struggled with that, to discover the separation and the detachment from the dead and the inability that I had to readjust to things outside the stability of the water... "

The Diver was the first character that gave me the initial plot for the novel.  I spent a lot of time taking photographs of bodies of water and imagining what was discovered underneath.  Through his eyes and responsibilities at the crime scenes, we area introduced to the depressed town he lives within.  He is forced because of circumstance to be the individual chosen to retrieve the bodies of the dead children from the water.  The situations that he has to deal with has a lasting effect on the relationship with his wife, The Documentarian.  

"The department would have a handler on the tracks in Massachusetts. Once he saw me exiting the train that was it. I would be isolated and alone. That man would be the last person to understand or have any knowledge of who I was. Or whom I thought I had once been..."

The Agent is a man who specializes in undercover work, mostly for the F.B.I.  Living in the small town where the children are being murdered gives him an advantage and he takes on the identity of a child predator, searching for evidence and connections to the children.  Existing in that world strains the relationship that he has with his wife, The Teacher.  So much so, that he begins to question who he really is.

"I sat there listening to the rain, waiting. I switched on the radio to drown out the solemnity, moreover the reminiscence that accompanied it. I turned the dial until I found something antique, more classical. The notes dripped from the speakers. It was a string piece. I thought about the first time he touched me with his cello bow as I sat at the edge of the tub, gliding its delicate fibers along the longitude of my back. He once told me my skin, the subtle intricacies of my flesh resonated notes, made music and I was a tender, beautiful portion of a composition, a symphony, an andante. I lowered and moved my hand from the steering column down across my belly. Everything was changing though. We were having a child, a delicate and difficult composition all its own..."

The Ballerina is a woman who loves her husband dearly , but is challenged by the repercussions of his suicide attempt and the despair which lingers afterwards.  When she discovers that she is pregnant, she is forced to tell him despite his misgivings about his handicap and his worth.  When she comes home from practice and discovers evidence pertaining to the case in her bathroom, she understands what her husband The Musician  is about to do... 

  "That poor acreage would never again be a place of happiness because of what happened there. I wondered for a moment if anyone else had looked upon a woman on those golden acres of tilled grain and corn as I once had you. You were so brooding and gorgeous, your albescent skin burning with the sun and the faceless, orange pumpkins around your ankles. It appeared as if you were engulfed in a painless fire, blighting everything near you. You were that strong of a woman and I thought at the time, that sad..."

The Painter is the father of the first child found murdered and the wife of The Model.  On a train to New York through a series of paintings, we discover what happened in their relationship before and after their daughter Jennifer as murdered.  

The musician that I refer to in The Musician & The Ballerina is Rebecca Ferguson.  Two of her songs inspired scenes in The Unsteady Object of Hope. 

In The Musician, the song is Shoulder to Shoulder

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGuuZwL-jsg 

In The Ballerina, the song is Freedom

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J3L3GyQyzo