"The Third Policeman" is Flann O'Brien's brilliantly dark comic novel
about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who
has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him
and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where, through
the theories of the scientist/philosopher de Selby, he is introduced to
"Atomic Theory" and its relation to bicycles, the existence of eternity
(which turns out to be just down the road), and de Selby's view that the
earth is not round but "sausage-shaped." With the help of his newly
found soul named "Joe, " he grapples with the riddles and