The characters

Born 1900 in Göttingen. Survives the 1922 Anatolia expedition, where his five companions perish. Carries the knowledge of the Fifth Breath — and the guilt of the only one. His life is that of a man who knows too much, and pays for it.

Eighteen in September 1935 in Berlin. Daughter of the master watchmaker. Restores imperial clocks with absolute precision. Becomes a key figure of German resistance. Iron heart, soft voice, gaze that never lowers.

Berliner Jewish master watchmaker, scholar of Akkadian dialects and Anatolian rites. First holder of the secret in Nazi Germany. His Friedrichstrasse shop is the threshold through which the Fifth Breath enters the century.

SS Ahnenerbe officer, methodical hunter. Vanished in Serbia mid-war. Resurfaces, decades later, as a silent doctor in a remote clinic. The trajectory of a man caught up by himself.

Vogel's successor at the head of the hunt. Pursues the Fifth Breath when the Reich is no more. Dies in winter 1968 in a private Buenos Aires clinic, three weeks of agony. The final shape of fanaticism: solitude.

Irish giant, former mercenary recruited into the British SOE at eighteen. Deep voice, broad hands, inflexible conscience. Faithful guard, brother in arms, witness. He names danger when others stay silent.

Great War veteran, Catholic priest, pragmatic atheist on the surface. Helps the snowy Tatra crossing. Dies in the Andes to open a passage. A man who prays while walking and walks while praying.

Orphan child taken in along the roads of war. Becomes a luthier in Ireland, carving cellos from the dark wood of Atlantic forests. Dies aged eighty-eight, facing a steel-grey sea, the notebook within reach.

Daughter of Lukas. In 2025, in her father's lutherie workshop, she sorts his belongings after the funeral and finds a metal box. Inside: a black leather notebook stained with blood. She does not yet know what she has just opened.