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‘I've been rereading the book I wish I'd written'

Hilary Mantel

Sad days if you don't read much, and members of my household run a mile from my recommendations, but I saw one of them cast a hopeless glance at the bookshelves, so after some hours took courage and said: "This is truly one of the best novels I have ever, ever read, and I wish heartily that I could have written it myself, and I don't believe you could start it without wanting to know how it ends." It is Eugene McCabe's Death and Nightingales, set in rural Ireland in 1883, and it is a mystery to me how I only came to hear of it recently. I've made up for ignorance by reading it several times, to see how it's done.