Anil Tissera
The titular protagonist of Anil's Ghost, Anil is a Sri Lanken woman who left her native country to become a forensic pathologist in the United Kingdom and eventually the United States. She returns to Sri Lanka with her newly learned skills as part of a Human Rights Investigation along with a group of people. During her investigation, she finds a strange, unidentified skeleton which leads her to attempt to advocate and bring justice to all the nameless victims of the civil war currently taking place in Sri Lanka.
Sarath Diyasena
Sarath is an archaeologist who is working alongside Anil in the Human Rights Investigation in Sri Lanka. She and Anil find the skeleton of a recently deceased (and as they find out- murdered) man in an ancient burial ground, and subsequently begin investigating further into the unreported deaths of the civil war.
Gamini Diyasena
Gamini is Sarath's brother, an emergency doctor working in Sri Lanka who struggles valiantly every day to attempt and save the countless victims of war in the land. He works in the small village of Galapitigama.
Ananda
Ananda is a clay sculptor in Sri Lanka whom Anil and Sarath ask for help to possibly reconstruct the face of the deceased man they found in the burial ground. Ananda attempts to commit suicide after he finishes it, to their shock.
Sailor
"Sailor" is the nickname Anil and Sarath give to the skeleton of the deceased man they find in the burial ground. Throughout the novel, strange things happen to people around Sailor, and Anil believes there is something more to the dead man.
