Piranesi

Piranesi- Susanna Clarke
Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date: September 15, 2020

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis:  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.

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Most readers picked up this book or are reading this review because they know Susanna Clarke as the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell- an instant classic in the fantasy world.  So let me start this review by telling you two things: 1) this book is NOT like Jonathan Strange and 2) the less someone tries to tell you about Piranesi the more you'll enjoy it.

Piranesi is written in a style that I usually hate (first person, as it is happening, slightly indescribable prose) and at first I wasn't convinced I was going to enjoy it.  But I kept going and was soon pulled into the world of the House.     

Piranesi is a short book, an afternoon's read, especially compared to the tome that is Jonathan Strange.  It's a fantasy world, so full of description that you feel like you are walking down the halls with the main character.  At first you try to figure out if the world is a post-apocalyptic one, a parallel one, or some shadowy mix of worlds you haven't even thought of yet.  The World is the House, and it is a combination of architecture and water.  It is silent, full of statues, and yet through the brilliant writing it is also quite alive.  The character called Piranesi (though he's pretty sure that isn't his real name) has a beautiful approach to the World, life, and everything in it, making him really a joy to read.

Strange and delightful, Piranesi is a mystery that refuses to conform to any rules but its own.  It is the sort of book that haunts you if you put it down before finishing it, makes you continue to think after you've closed the last page, and insists you re-read it to catch some of the nuances you missed the first time.  I predict it will be an instant classic in English literature college classes, and it is certainly a guarantee that readers will be debating hidden meanings and theories for decades to come.

A compelling book that must be experiences rather than described, but should be enjoyed if given the chance.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review