Sample of literary figures
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Kouplan
Male
He calls himself Kouplan, but his real name is Nesrine Amipour, born in 1968, and he is a transsexual guy in a woman’s body. He has trained as a journalist, but is now a refugee without papers in Sweden, homeless and unemployed. He supports himself by collecting drink-cans (and thus being able to cash in on the deposit) and works as a ‘private investigator’ in four novels by Sara Lövestam, while at the same time trying to ascertain what has happened to his Iranian family.
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Lindsay Gordon
Female
Lindsay Gordon is a hardboiled, cynical, lesbian crime reporter and the protagonist of half a dozen novels by Val McDermid. She is a Socialist, feminist jazz lover who tries to cut down on her cigarette and whiskey consumption. Her unorthodox methods are not always appreciated, especially not by the police, but that does not stop her from continuing to harass them.
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Tiny (Thobela) Mpayipheli
Male
South African warrior from the Xhosa tribe, renowned freedom-fighter – former ANC soldier – but also a Stasi agent and assassin for the KGB. He is the son of a peaceful pastor, and according to author Deon Meyer is a giant of a man with very dark skin and dazzlingly white teeth. Thobela ‘Tiny’ Mpayipheli is a skilled rugby player and for a while lives together with Miriam Nzululwazi, whose death hits him hard.
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Gunnar Mellberg
Male
A detective inspector, later chief inspector, in Lund, Sweden. He is tall, well-built, smokes a pipe and is interested in gardening. With his wife, he has four children. K. Arne Blom has written five novels (and a book for people with reading impediments) about Gunnar Mellberg. In the first novels, he has a minor yet important role, in the final one it is revealed that he is the son of one of Blom’s main characters, the security agent Loman.