Gratia Maria Saitta, known as "the girl": 

Golden eyes, long red hair, 16 years old, sensing magical powers, hated by her mother, feared and ostracized by the town, searching for her path in life, aching for her mother's love...willing to kill to get it.

Think: Dakota Fanning

 

Agata Saitta, the mother:

White hair, round red knuckles,  dry, empty face, old before her 35 years, widowed and filled with vengeance and secrets.

Think: Marisa Tomei

 

Vincenza, the godmother, the healer, the worm-charmer:

Round, dark face, 48 years old, a healer who cannot heal her own heart, torn the way she is between the loyalty for a husband who abandoned her and the growing affection for the carter of the town who is both charming and conniving.

Think: Aida Turturro

 

Mastru Nonziu, the carter:

Short, hollow eyes, 45 years of age, glib, girlish voice when he sings out his tunes to Chiazza, his faithful white horse.

Think: Anthony LaPaglia

 

Blasiu, the shepherd boy:

Tall, thin, dark wet eyes, 21 years of age, brown stocking cap pressed on his right cheek which hides a birthmark in the shape of a large broad bean.

Think: a young James Franco

 

Alexander Nelson Hood, the Duchinu, the future fifth Duke of Bronte:

Wears a patch over his right eye, 23 years of age, a "tall bundle of straw," great-great nephew of Admiral Horatio Nelson, solemn and proper, expected to marry his distant cousin, Elizabeth, until he encounters the girl.

Think: Robert Pattinson

 

Elizabeth, the jealous cousin:

Green eyes, red hair, large thick fingers, 18 years of age, ready to make a deal with the Devil, passionately in love with the Duchinu, the man and the title.

Think: Emma Watson

 

Dr. Lucien Gale, the surgeon:

Disgraced, unhappy, addicted to absinthe, sleazy, sarcastic, 46 years of age, wears a tight smile on his lips, loves women and hardly cares if they return his love.

Think: Eric Roberts

 

Muntagna, the Narrator:

Self-exiled from his town, 48 years old, half-man, half-beast, now that his cousin works his magic, self-professed coward.

Think: John Turturro

 

 

 

 

 

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