The novel can be described as very European because it reflects the pain of the Second World War and its extension into the future. The author once said in an interview that, "...we Europeans are so divided amongst ourselves, but we have so much in common -- a common history and a heavy past that we carry, and at some point you feel we look back more than we look forwards. Whereas in America it's the other way around. It doesn't mean whatever they're saying or whatever they're seeing is better than what we're doing. It's not a good thing in itself. But it's true: Americans are more like little kids in a way, they predict themselves in the future. We're the old people now."