The past actions of the main character closely resemble the war crimes of the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić.

"[1] James Wood of The New Yorker describes the narration of the novel as "a loose and chatty free indirect discourse, edging comically (in good Irish literary fashion) toward stream of consciousness.

Julie Myerson described the prose as "sly perfection" which "changes tense (sometimes within a single chapter) or slides out of one character’s headspace and – with an absolutely convincing logic all of her own – into another.

[5] New York Times reviewer and novelist Joyce Carol Oates favorably described the novel as " boldly imagined and harrowing".

Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles described the novel as "leav[ing] one in humbled awe" because of O'Brien's "dexterity [and] her ability to shift without warning — like life — from romance to horror, from hamlet to hell, from war crimes tribunal to midsummer night’s dream.