The plot was loosely based on the real-life death of Brian Murphy that occurred in Dublin in 2000 as a result of a violent assault outside a nightclub.
He and his two friends, Stephen O’Brien and Barry Fox, all attended the (fictional) privately run Brookfield College, a secondary school which boasts of producing high-ranking politicians, judges and business leaders.
If you find something in a society that people aren't talking about, in a sense that is what fiction is for…it's not a question of trampling all over sensitivities, that's absolutely not my project here at all.
[4]The Sunday Business Post review, by Dermot Bolger was similarly enthusiastic: This is a disturbing book and a truly fine one, when was the last time an Irish novel made us properly uncomfortable?
'[5] Peter Murphy in Hot Press called it ‘A powerful debut and one of the most exciting Irish novels in years.'