Tessa Brandt

CHARACTER · THE DIVIDE

Tessa Brandt is a night operator who checks trunk valves on the heat network.

Work and recognition

Her work connects plant operations with John’s school assignment about the systems that keep a home alive. She represents the people whose ordinary rounds can disappear behind a tidy diagram.

In the book

Named in Chapter 3.

Explore further

• John Evans
• Venn
• The Divide
• Characters

Based on Paul Evans: The Divide. Introductory reference only; major discoveries and outcomes are omitted.

The people behind a household loop

Checking trunk valves is part of the continuing work that lets a household experience heat as something ordinary. Tessa’s name gives that work a person rather than leaving it as an anonymous line on a diagram.

Her place in the classroom discussion connects Ms. Ivers’s assignment with the wider operations community. Venn introduces another aspect of the work that continues through the night.