Just think... Hilary Mantel would have earned none of these firsts if Regeneration had won in 1991 as it deserved to.
d.
Bit of a long shot that perhaps...? "The Famished Road" was itself, surely, ground-breaking and utterly deserving, and then if Regeneration had won in 1991, would Ghost Road have won a few years later as well?
Anyway, had "Bring up the Bodies" for my birthday in August, (and read/enjoyed it) I was also given "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller, which is tremendous and which I'd recommend without reservation. The writing is vivid and the plotting brilliant.
I then went on to re-read "Gatsby" after oh...plenty of years. Glad I did it...
Now reading Sarah Walters' "Fingersmith" not far into it, though....
there are already dark hints that Things Will Not Go Well. Of course, this might just be the laying of a false trail, unless the book is framed as a memoir from the condemned cell (no, please don't say).