Bleak absurdity, deadpan humour and brilliant inventiveness mark this novel as one of the most important in Irish literature. Set in a disquieting other-world where people can become bicycles and dimensions shift without warning, the novel is footnoted with the extraordinary tale of a philosopher and his obsessed commentators. With a nameless principal character arguing with his rather worldly soul, and set in a place where a wooden leg is an advantage, The Third Policeman is Flann O’Brien’s comic, surreal and chilling masterpiece.