BOOK REVIEW: Piranesi - a fascinating world and story by Susanna Clarke

Cover of Piranesi. Review by Markus McDowell

Susanne Clarke. Piranesi. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. 246pp.

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.
—Amazon description

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.

This is one of my favorite books I have read all year. What a fascinating world that Clarke has built—a huge house (city?) with endless multiple levels of rooms of statues, other artifacts, and a slowly enriching ocean on the lower levels.

As the story progresses, questions arise: how did Piranesi get here? Why does he not remember? Where is this place, and where are all the inhabitants? Hints here and there make this a wonderful read. As the story unfolds, and the situation becomes more clear, it is not anything I expected. Clarke has woven together fantasy, reality, world-building, alchemy, and more, into an engaging setting and storyline.

Piranesi (the protagonist) is delightfully sweet and naïve. A reader wants to learn more about him, is impressed with his ingenuity of living in this abandoned world, and also to protect him.

The New Yorker described it as “A novel that feels like a surreal meditation on life in quarantine.” True, but solitary quarantine—a life many of us have lived over the last year plus. If only we all could have rejoiced in the wonder of our world during that time, remaining positive, and simply done what needed to be done each day with thanksgiving for life itself—however difficult.

Beautifully written, this is a short book that will probably make you not want to put it down. Not because of action, mystery, or intrigue (there is some of that), but becuase the literary picture of the world and of Piranesi is so unique and compelling. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys good, speculative prose.

Piranesi is a New York Times Bestseller, Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and a World Fantasy Awards Finalist, 2021 Nebula Award finalist, 2021 Hugo Award Finalist.