TITLE: Piranesi
AUTHOR: Susanna Clarke
GENRE: Fantasy
WORD/PAGE COUNT: 160 pages
PUBLICATION DETAILS: by Bloomsbury Australia on September 15th, 2020
RRP: $27.99 AUD (hardcover)
Blurb from Goodreads:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality.
Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.
For readers of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.
Piranesi is a stunning, dreamy tale that’s rich with atmosphere and mystery. The protagonist seems content living in solitude in a splendidly impossible House with an infinite number of rooms containing all kinds of strange and surreal sights, with tides moving through the lower Halls and clouds reigning in the upper Halls. He resides in the middle Halls and spends his time cataloguing what surrounds him, like the pattern of the tides or the position, size and subject of the multitudes of statues.
While Piranesi is happy to devote his entire life to appreciating the beauty of the House, it’s clear to the reader that there is something dreadfully wrong. The mystery slowly unfolds from the off-hand observation that Piranesi isn’t his name (although he cannot remember what it used to be) to the missing pages in his otherwise meticulously maintained journals to the shifty manner of The Other, whose comments and possession of a ‘shiny device’ hints at greater knowledge of Piranesi’s plight than he’s letting on. Piranesi is so innocent and easily trusting that he believes in every word from The Other when we readers can see how suspicious his behavior is, creating a simmering tension and dread in the background.
To say that this book is magical would be an understatement. Reading this is like entering the wardrobe to Narnia or stepping through the barrier onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters. It transports you to another world of beauty and danger and stark isolation with an endearing sweet and simple protagonist whose entire existence is a mystery. Following him on the journey to self-realization as he unravels the clues to his past is rewarding, enchanting and a little heartbreaking. This is a uniquely creative, spell-binding story told with an effortless charm – if you’re looking to escape this mundane world, open up Piranesi and disappear into the endless Halls of this hypnotic, majestic House.
Disclaimer: Physical copy provided by publisher free for an unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
dreamingofcats 