Piranesi

by Susanna Clarke

272 pages

English language

Published April 7, 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

ISBN:: 978-1-5266-2242-6

(50 reviews)

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 …

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 of surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.

7 editions

Jan Kjellin reviewed Piranesi

The House gives you wings

5 stars

With splashes of Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Buried Giant" in a setting partly reminiscent of Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast"-trilogy, Clarke's book is a melancholy, yet innocent, account of the life of the man known to himself (and referred to by the Other) as "Piranesi".

Between the lines lies the question of identity (also asked by Ishiguro); who this "Piranesi" is, was and will become forms a central part of the story. As does the general question of what defines me as an individual and how this current manifestation of "Me" relates to earlier manifestations of myself. Where does yesterday-Jan Kjellin reside and what influence - if any - does he have the power to wield over now-Jan Kjellin? And further: what influence will now-Jan Kjellin have over tomorrow-Jan Kjellin? Does yesterday-Jan Kjellin sleep inside me? Can I wake him when/if I should need him?

Let's get back to the book, though. I …

Let's get back to the book, though. I find the House to be one of the better incarnations of Gormenghast that I have read so far. Of course, it's not a Gormenghast per se, but it still has that immense, bordering on the infinite, feel to it that make Peake's books so intriguing. A world within a world.

We live in a world in which we exist and live and need to make sense of to be able to exist and live in. The House is a world within and without that world, that helps us to live in this world, given that we can access that inner/outer world.

If I'm to take anything with me from "Piranesi", it might be that it communicates the value (to some it might be a need) of having that access. Of being able to communicate freely with yesterday-Jan Kjellin to the benefit of today-Jan Kjellin as well as tomorrow-Jan Kjellin. It has he power to set you free.

Or, in the words of a current energy drink commercial: "The House gives you wings".

Antonis reads reviewed Piranesi

Multilayered, mysterious & delightful

4 stars

I'm a big sucker for mysterious spaces and Piranesi delivers in spades. Characters are very interesting too, the story's theme resonates as well.

Acton reviewed Piranesi

Review of 'Piranesi' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is part mystery, a little bit thriller, but mostly thought-provoking philosophy.

When I first started reading, I had no idea what was going on. At first, I was reminded of the beginning of

John Kelly reviewed Piranesi

Review of 'Piranesi' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

When I was in my 20s, I had a healthy social life AND social anxiety which is a hell of a cocktail. Every night I'd come home full of beer and emotions and I'd have real difficulty in shutting my brain off so I could go to sleep. Nothing worked. I'd just lie in my bed going over everything I'd said or did trying to think about things I could have said or did differently. For hours. And then I bought a DVD box set of The Prisoner. I'd put on an episode and it would pummel my brain into submission. Everything about it is so strange and confusing that my mind would give up trying to figure out what was happening and just shut down after 10 minutes.

Piranesi brought back this feeling so hard. I don't just mean thematically (although there are plenty of similarities between the book and The Prisoner -- similarities I'm sure someone with a medium dot com account and a pathological inability to allow a take go un-taken will happily point out). I really struggled with the opening of this book because every night I would feel my mind saying "fuuuuucccck this book I can't figure out what's going on" and shutting down. Every single time. It wasn't until page 100 or so where something finally clicked for me and the story started to make sense and I blasted through the second half.

Loved it. It’s a perfect perfect autumn story.

Jim Liedeka reviewed Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Review of 'Piranesi' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I really enjoyed this book. At first, I was getting a bit of a Borges vibe. The house in which the story is set reminded me of the infinite library. I liked the way the story unfolded through the eyes of an unreliable narrator.

William Smith reviewed Piranesi

Review of 'Piranesi' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Much like the computer game Myst, the reader is set down in the middle of an unusual world known as the House. Piranesi, one of two inhabitants, has extensively explored and mapped this world, including its seasons and tides.

The reader immediately thinks, "What or where is this?" But not Piranesi. This is his world as he knows it.

I found myself questioning whether I wanted to finish this book around page 50 (a fifth of the book) because the story was simply mundane. Piranesi doesn't question his world and his journaling was about his bland and banal existence. These were the hardest pages to read because their content was so repetitive. I was slogging through them.

Eventually, we learn there's a secret to discover and mystery to unfold. I'm happy I pressed on because reading was very quick and entertaining from there forward.

I haven't read Clarke's Jonathan Strange …