He thinks of himself as ‘the Beloved Child of the House’, though the only living person he shares his halls with – who he calls ‘the Other’ – refers to him as Piranesi. ![]() Essentially it’s the story of a man who resides in what he calls the House, a vast labyrinth of halls, passageways, vestibules and staircases populated by thousands upon thousands of statues, with its own strange climate and ecosystem – clouds gather in the upper halls, tides surge up from the depths, birds make their nests on statues and fish teem in the waters. As it turns out, Piranesi is beautifully written but unconventional and difficult to describe, the sort of book that plunges you straight into the deep end of a fully-formed world with its own unique rules, systems, style and terminology, which only reveals its secrets slowly and carefully as you dig beneath the surface. I wasn’t sure what to expect, when I started listening – I don’t think anyone knew what to expect, after such a long gap between books. I’m not going to try and talk objectively like I would usually, because this is a book I loved so much I just want to sing its praises! I had no intention of reviewing Piranesi, so I made no notes or took down any quotations, but after finishing it and spending some time mulling it over, I can’t help but want to talk about it. It took me some time to get round to reading it, but I eventually settled on the audiobook edition, narrated by the wonderful Chiwetel Ejiofor, and listened to it over the space of a week’s worth of walks around Southeast London, at first pleasantly puzzled and then gradually, increasingly beguiled by its quiet, dreamlike depths. ![]() I adored Susanna Clarke’s debut novel Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell when I read it back in…I don’t know, 2004 or 2005, and I had been hearing great things about her second novel, Piranesi, since it was announced in 2020.
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