Bibliofemme News

The book was featured in the third episode of the second series, which aired on RTÉ 2 last night.

Although the novel only appeared on screen for a second, that amount of exposure was enough to sell 10,000 copies of the book in two days after the episode was aired in the US last year.

One of the show's scriptwriter and producers told the Chicago Tribune that reading The Third Policeman would be invaluable to fans seeking to unravel the island's mystery.

"Whoever goes out and buys the book will have a lot more ammunition in their back pocket as they theorise about the show," Wright told the paper. "They will have a lot more to speculate about - and, no small thing, they will have read a really great book."

Dalkey Archive, a tiny Chicago publisher reprinted the 1967 book in 1999. They sold about 15,000 copies of O'Brien's book between 1999 and September of 2005. Since the show, they've shipped about 15,000 more to retailers looking to meet reader demand.

HarperCollins, O'Brien's publisher on this side of the world, has arranged an extra print run of 10,000 copies of the fantastical tale which is narrated by a man who assists in a murder in return for cash.

While trying to retrieve his stashed bounty, he enters an absurd parallel world where, among other things, men become part of their bicycles and vice versa.

Bibliofemme Bookmarks: The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien

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