The novel of the same title by John Banville, which the film is based on, won the Booker Prize in 2005.
The beach in Wexford, Ireland, is the same beach where Steven Spielberg shot Der Soldat James Ryan (1998)
The book Rose is reading on the beach is Saint Overboard by Leslie Charteris.
Ciarán Hinds and Charlotte Rampling have previously appeared together in The Statement - Am Ende einer Flucht (2003) and Life During Wartime (2009).