I think that each of us inhabits a private world that others cannot see. The only difference between the writer and the reader is that the writer is able to dramatise that private world.

The novel is set during his last day in the school. He was the Garda sergeant of the village. His father was also the sergeant and did marry a second time although not during his time as a policeman.

John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006) is regarded as one of the most important Irish writers of the latter half of the twentieth century.