Piranesi

I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell so much that I actually put off reading Piranesi, afraid of disappointment. But now I can say it has actually supplanted the earlier novel in my affections! It is again somewhat difficult to describe; dreamlike and surreal, magical and mysterious, but certainly not a ‘typical’ fantasy novel, whatever that might be. The main character, Piranesi, lives alone in a house full of statues, that is wreathed in clouds and deluged by floods. He is visited mainly by birds, and by the mysterious ‘Other’. This may not sound like much of a premise for… show more.

In some ways this book reminded me of my own novel, "The High House," in that the hero exists in a mysterious, seemingly infinite house filled with thousands of statues. He doesn't know how he got there or how anything works, and as he meets other people, doesn't know who are his friends, and who his enemies. It's a thoughtful, different sort of book, one whose imagery may stay with you for some time.

Susanna Clarke is a lovely writer. Expansive on occasion yet trite or to the point when she needs to be. The story wanders and weaves mythos the way it was supposed to. It is named after Piranesi after all. We all fall prey to these thoughts, some for moments others for years when we drift away and become something else for a while. That was the enchantment for me.

I very nearly stopped reading this book–even though it’s so short as it starts off unbelievably abstract. I didn’t know what was going on, and the descriptions only added to the confusion. But I’m so glad I kept going.

The main character does amnesia in the most charming way, and discovering his past and the strange world he seems both lost in and totally at home in was absolutely enchanting. This has stuck with me ever since, like the most vivid fever dream.

Though not technically an island, perhaps, the world depicted in this mystifying novel is unlike any I’ve experienced before, a maze of chambers and thunderous tides where secrets are hidden out in the open.

The reader is dropped into this disorienting world with only its titular protagonist as a guide. What follows is a beguiling journey of philosophy, magic, and wide-eyed innocence—a triumph of the imagination. 

I love novels that evolve as I read them. I don’t want to feel I know exactly how a book will turn out from the first page. Give me the unknown and the mysterious, a strange setting and an otherworldly tone.

I also love novels with descriptive chapter titles. Piranesi satisfied all those impulses. The story begins by creating a deep, almost mythological atmosphere, which quickly reveals itself to be a mysterious epistolary, perhaps an ancient diary.

The unfolding mystery is intriguing, but the emerging and disturbing relationship between the novel’s two characters is the heart of the book. It… show more.

How to explain the appeal of this compellingly original novel? A man who no longer knows himself, exists in a place no longer known to the world; a series of halls flooded by tidal waters and populated by extraordinary statues and flocks of birds.

Narnia for grownups, Piranesi enthralled me from the start. The need to unravel the book’s mystery became an obsession, so that the story occupied my thoughts on and off all day, and I couldn’t wait to get back to it. The ‘reveal’ is as satisfying as it is unpredictable, and the writing is flawless.

Clarke had… show more.

A house that is not a house but a world; a drowning, empty, echoing world with one lonely, endearingly innocent wanderer, endless statues, occasional birds—and the remains of the dead.

Dreamlike but lucid, sharp enough to cut, Piranesi is a relatively slim book (you could read it in one deeply absorbed afternoon) but the world it evokes is vast.

It sounds like distant seabirds as heard from a dark room, and it tastes salty, like blood or the sea.

This is a novel overflowing with mysterious overtones. Its tidal surge licks at the reader’s heels and lures us in. The story is told by Piranesi, who inhabits a place he calls the House. The House is composed of a series of vast rooms populated with marble statues, and, on the lower floor, an ocean is imprisoned. We are tasked with unraveling the world that guileless Piranesi inhabits. We don’t know how long he has lived there and neither does he. He has devised his own calendar system and tries to number the vast rooms of the House but we… show more.

Susanna Clarke’s 2021 novel is unlike any other book on my list—actually, it’s unlike any other book, period. Piranesi’s life consists of his wanderings around the vast House, a desolate series of interconnecting chambers filled with colossal statues. In his journal entries we learn that he’s convinced that somebody else shares this alien space, but he knows nothing about why either of them are there. The novel mixes Robinson Crusoe-esque exploration with a complex and surprisingly tangible mystery, and by the time readers reach the conclusion they may well be tempted to reread the entire novel to appreciate events… show more.