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Illustrated portrait of Vimini

A character in Call Me by Your Name

Vimini

A seriously ill local girl whose direct friendship with Oliver quietly introduces mortality into the summer.

What they want

To share companionship and speak plainly within the short time available to her.

The book

Cover of Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
Call Me by Your NameAndré Aciman, 2007

A brief summer love becomes the line dividing one life into before and after.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Vimini is a precocious local girl of about ten who befriends Oliver. Illness has made her unusually direct and aware that time is scarce.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • Small and delicateHer physical fragility is visible without defining her mind.
  • Bright eyedIntellectual alertness counters assumptions of helplessness.
  • DirectShe speaks with an honesty adults often avoid.
  • Time consciousHer presence quietly changes the summer’s apparent timelessness.
Vimini’s fateHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Vimini dies several years after the principal summer, becoming part of the losses named near the end.

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