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