Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Format: 245 pages, Hardcover

Published: September 15, 2020 by Bloomsbury

Fantasy Fiction Mystery Magical Realism

Library

Ok so this was weird. I hardly know what to say cos if I say anything that might be a spoiler.

Right, so this man lives in a weird house. The house has oceans and tides. Hallways filled with statues. No one living there except a man he calls The Other. And some skeletons. Such a weird place. No recollection why he is there, and if there exists anything else but this house.

Was it great? Nah. But I really wanted to know why this man was living in this house, that is not a house but a strange world at the same time. Hall after hall, you can walk for days.

And we do get an explanation, grateful for that. I can not say anything more.

And about the characters. Well, we know nothing about The Other. He is just there. Piranesi, as the Other calls the man, well we know nothing about him either. He is resourceful, he keeps a journal. He loves this house and likes to explore.

I did like it, because something kept me reading

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.