Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.
In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
While the Other busies himself searching for the Great and Secret Knowledge, Piranesi spends his days cataloguing the House’s statues, studying the tides, drying out seaweed for food and fuel, and exploring as much of the House’s watery halls as he can fit in his lifetime. Though he has an inquisitive nature, and considers himself a scientist, Piranesi is oddly content with his lot, and is happy to be a Beloved Child of the House and nothing more.
That is until messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?
Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.
It’s been sixteen years since Susanna Clarke’s debut fantasy epic Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell hit the shelves. It was an instant phenomenon and a worldwide bestseller. Neil Gaiman described it as “the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years”, and it is also the only book ever to be long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and win The Hugo Award.
Now, Clark returns with her highly anticipated second novel, Piranesi, and it goes without saying, we’ve all been very excited about this one. Set in a strange and mysterious otherworld known as the House, Piranesi is an astonishing piece of storytelling about entrapment and solitude, which takes on a whole new meaning in the wake of COVID-19.
Though the novel is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and the House is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, I felt as if I were standing in its watery halls with Piranesi thanks to Clarke’s remarkable world-building and wordsmanship. The descriptions of the House were vivid, atmospheric and utterly spellbinding, and Clarke certainly has a talent for making even the surreal and fantastic seem plausible and real.
Like the House, there’s something strange and otherworldly about Clarke’s prose, which is lyrical, beguiling and steeped in magic. Indeed, as I read, Clarke cast a spell on me, lulling me in, so that it was almost impossible to take my eyes off the page.
Spectacular, mind-bending and utterly enthralling, Piranesi, was certainly worth the wait, and, like its predecessor, has all the hallmarks of a classic that will be talked about for years to come.
Leave a Reply