The Things You Didn't See - Facts

 

The novel is set in Suffolk. Suffolk is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west.

Holly, one of the main characters, lives in Ipswich. Ipswich is a town in Suffolk, a county in eastern England. Set on the River Orwell, its waterfront is lined with cafes, galleries and shops, and the 19th-century Old Custom House, which recalls the city’s maritime history. 

Holly suffers from mirror-touch synaesthesia. Mirror-touch synesthesia is a form of synesthesia where individuals feel the same/similar sensation as another person (such as touch). For instance, when such a synesthete observes someone being tapped on their shoulder, the synesthete involuntarily feels a tap on their own shoulder as well. Some research suggests people with this type of synesthesia have higher empathy levels compared to the general population.

Leif is doing his thesis on Ingrid Bergman. Ingrid Bergman (29 August 1915 – 29 August 1982) was a Swedish actress with a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential actresses in the history of cinema.

One of the films that Leif and Holly talk about is Gaslight. Gaslight is a 1944 American psychological thriller film directed by George Cukor, and starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Angela Lansbury in her film debut. Gaslighting has come to mean manipulating a person or a group of people into questioning their own sanity or reality, in a way similar to the way the protagonist in the film was manipulated.

The book mentions a couple of people who committed crimes while sleepwalking. 

On the night of January 16, 1997, in Phoenix, Arizona, Scott Falater stabbed his wife  44 times with a hunting knife in their backyard.   A neighbour who witnessed part of the incident reported seeing Falater stab Yarmila, walk away into the garage, return to find her still moving, drag her body to the family swimming pool, and hold her head underwater to drown her. When questioned by homicide detectives, Falater insisted he had no memory of the attack, claiming he loved his wife and had no conscious intent or motive to harm her. Experts testified that Falater had a history of sleepwalking and argued that he was in a state of non-REM sleepwalking during the attack, rendering him legally non-responsible for his actions.

In the early morning of May 24, 1987, Kenneth Parks drove 20 kilometres to the house of his in-laws. He entered their house with a key they had previously given him and used a tire iron to bludgeon his mother-in-law to death. He then turned on his father-in-law, attempting unsuccessfully to choke him to death. Covered with blood, Parks got back in his car and drove straight to a nearby police station and confessed, turning himself in, stating "I think I have just killed two people." At trial, Parks argued that he was sleepwalking and thus automatistic and not criminally liable. The jury acquitted Parks.