Content Warning: This section contains discussion of death, violence, and physical abuse.

Omar, who typically goes by Monkey, is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. At the beginning of the story, Monkey sets himself up as a reliable taleteller and Samir’s murderer, but the novel’s advancement reveals that he is an unreliable narrator who lied to save Samir’s life (and his own). Unlike many of the other characters, he is a round character, displaying complexity and growth throughout the work. Twelve years old during the novel’s main action, Monkey is quite young and characterized as such; his worldview is often dogmatic and intractably moralistic, but he grows into a nuanced, complex person over the course of the story, making his character arc a coming-of-age story. Through the events of the novel, Monkey comes to understand the beauty of the world, the complexities of love, the ambiguity of truth, and the value of life. However, the seeds for his growth are established early on; when he reveals that he was banished from his monastery for questioning their beliefs, his actions imply that he is a nonconformist from the beginning.

Monkey is, despite his age, somewhat cynical and sarcastic but wants to have a positive outlook on the world.