Lin is the novel’s first-person narrator. Shortly after his escape from an Australian prison—an event that occurs before the novel’s beginning—Lin describes himself a “brave, hard man, without a plan” (9). Lin’s resourcefulness is one of his defining characteristics, and he never goes long without a plan. Lin is cunning, brave, and inclined to philosophy and has an artistic bent that lends itself to writing and ingenuity in his criminal endeavors. Lin has never killed another person, which he mentions several times, but he is no stranger to violence: “Like every other tough, angry man I knew, I avoided fighting until it came to me, and then I enjoyed it” (154). His intentional outward projection helps protect him from many fights before they start: “The message of my face and my body’s movement was, like that of a lot of other hard men, Don’t fuck with me” (136).

Lin enjoys friendship, which is immediately evident in his quick bond with Prabu. He is also a romantic. His thoughts of Karla are florid and poetic. He also enjoys the company of the others on Khan’s council and his brotherhood with Abdullah. Nevertheless, he enjoys the people, not the identity of a group: “I’m not a joiner.