 Several reviewers have pointed out that the Thomas Haley character shares many traits and biographical details with the author . Like Haley , McEwan studied at the University of Sussex ( later also at the University of East Anglia ) , and not at one of the more prestigious Oxbridge universities . Haley 's stories , summarised briefly in the novel , are in several cases strikingly similar to some of McEwan 's earlier work . This goes particularly for Haley 's dystopian début novel , which closely follows the plot of " Two Fragments " , a short story from McEwan 's 1978 In Between the Sheets . The novel wins Haley the fictional Jane Austen Prize for Fiction , just as McEwan 's debut First Love , Last Rites was rewarded with the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976 . Several of McEwan 's acquaintances from this period also make cameo appearances in the novel , including his friend Martin Amis , his first publisher Tom Maschler , and his mentor Ian Hamilton . 
