Olga

 Bernhard Schlink wrote The Reader and he also wrote Olga. Olga is a fascinating character from when she was abandoned by her parents as a little girl and went to live with her grandmother in Prussia. Her grandmother wanted to change her name to something less ethnic and little Olga refused to accept the name change. Olga did not live a typical life. Olga marched to her own drummer. We learn about her younger years in a series of letters she wrote to her significant other. We learn about her older years from a little boy in whose house she lived when she was older and a virus had left her completely deaf. Old, deaf, and frail, Olga continued to get into some amazing shenanigans. I have seldom met such an uncompromising character as Olga.