“A lot of the cultural affinity that the two nations have have felt for each other, going back to the second world war, is thinning out a little bit – and it created a lot of opportunities to think about how this relationship, as shown in the novel, could get even worse.”

David McCloskey · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-11

McCloskey described the thinning cultural affinity between the two nations as creating opportunities to imagine the relationship worsening, as depicted in his novel.