Beatles
 The main character and storyteller, Kim Karlsen (Paul), is writing the entire story in flashbacks from a sheltered and closed summer residence in the Nesodden area. He has recently escaped from the asylum of Gaustad in Oslo. He rewrites his story from the spring of 1965 to the present day (winter 1972-1973). Kim and his friends, Gunnar (John), Sebastian (George) and Ola (Ringo), played football together, collected Beatles records and stole attributes from cars. This last hobby was abandoned after an incident with an embassy car, and the entire collection was dumped in the fjord. Kim is known as a notorious liar, while Gunnar is the truth-seeker. Ola is the stuttering fat one, and Sebastian is a spiritualist. In time, Kim is the first to get a girlfriend, Nina, who is on and off over the years. The boys get involved in the Norwegian hippie movement in the late 1960s, experiment with drugs, and Sebastian gets so hooked the others have to look for him in Paris, where he lives the life of a junkie, but is saved by his friends (1968). Kim has a nervous breakdown and tells the end of his story from inside the asylum at the time of the Norwegian European Communities membership referendum, 1972. He escapes as the result is clear and retires to Nesodden for writing his story. The last we hear is from Nina, now pregnant with his child, before the book closes. The four boys mature during the political struggle of the 1960s, and end up as left-wings, inspired by people around them. The "upper class" mentality of the western Oslo society is evident, and Kim describes how his sentiments gradually go to the left. Three characters in the book seem to be propagating this view: * Gunnar's older brother, Stig. He presents them to "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan in the first chapter, making the boys conscious of the Vietnam War by telling them of the atrocities done by American soldiers (including information on napalm). Stig transcends during the book, ending as environmentalist with leaning towards anarchism. He and Seb seem to be close at some points in the book. * Henny, the young girlfriend of Kim´s uncle Hubert. She is an art student, informing Kim on Edvard Munch, and explains to him the assault on the Kjartan Slettemark Vietnam picture in the summer of 1965, to which Kim is a witness (The picture was attacked and demolished with and axe). Kim later has nightmares of the incident, dreaming the attacker uses his axe on innocent children. Henny is in Paris during the 1968 uprising, being attacked by the French police. The book tells how Kim sees her on television, being struck with batons. She even holds her hands around the head in the position of the Scream, to close the Munch metafor (Kim thinks the picture, which he "hears", is of the mother of one of the Vietnam napalm victims). The "scream" metaphor is a recurring motif in the book. * Fred Hansen, a working class boy who managed to get into the upper class school the other boys attend. He is mobbed down by the other boys, and even the teachers, who disrespect his East end dialect. Gunnar and the others protect Fred, and on visiting him and his mother, Kim and the others learn of the social differences in Oslo at the time. Fred drowns in the summer of 1966, despite being the best swimmer in class. The other keep his memory alive. Fred is apparently born outside marriage, not knowing who his father was. His mother earns her living by cleaning houses. The most notable historical inaccuracy in the original Beatles novel, is Kim Karlsen`s reaction and reflections around the picture of the Napalm Girl, mentioned as early as in the 1965 chapters, whereas the picture itself was taken in June 1972. To be charitable, the older Kim may have seen the picture that summer and blended it in with his adolescent memories, as the book closes in the spring of 1973.