A Question of Quality

Have you read a novel which you enjoyed not just as a reader but also as a writer, because you learned from it?

For me, one such book is The Italian House by Teresa Crane, which was published in 1995.

It is the story of a downtrodden young wife, who, shortly after the First World War, unexpectedly inherits her grandmother's villa in Italy. A quirk of Italian law requires her to take possession in person, so she travels alone to Tuscany, where she falls in love with the place and with another man. But the Villa Castellini is a place of secrets and strange events in the present form a link to family secrets from the past.

 So what did I learn from reading The Italian House?

Firstly, that the setting of a book can be more or less a character in its own right. The sense of place in Terera Crane's novel is so strong that the book ought to have a warning blazoned across the cover: This book will make you want to sell everything you possess and move to Tuscany.

Secondly, that the quality of the writing is everything. The Italian House is just 284 pages long, whereas most novels I read are over 400 pages. Yet when I had finished it, the richness of the writing made me feel as though I had read something much longer – which isn't to suggest it is over-written or flowery. It isn't.

In fact, it is written with economy. When the words are the right words, you don't need masses of them.

Have you ever read a book that you learned from as a writer?