Joana Vilkas Character Analysis

Joana is Lina’s elder cousin and best friend. Though Joana is not present in the novel, Lina recalls her blissful summers with her cousin and the letters the two exchanged. Joana is studying to be a doctor, and Lina learns throughout the course of the novel that Kostas was imprisoned—and thus Lina, Jonas, and Elena deported—due to the fact that he helped Joana and her family repatriate to Germany, where Joana’s mother is from. Lina thus feels conflicted towards the memories of Joana, since she was someone who Lina once looked up to but who now seems to be reaping the benefits of Lina’s family’s misery. Joana represents the person Lina wanted to grow up to be, and the person she hopes to become if she survives the labor camps.