trade paperback, 272 pages
English language
Published Sept. 13, 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality.
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 …
From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality.
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 an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth full of startling images of surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.
This description comes from the publisher.
Beautiful book. I finished ten minutes ago and I already know it’s going high on my list of favorite books. Immersive, transportative, enchanting.
I am a little ambivalent. On the one hand, the book hardly let me stop at some points, at others I felt incredibly bored. The description of endless halls and vestibules with the same names over and over again may have been interesting and fascinating the first time, but becomes very monotonous after a handful of pages.
The story is told through journal entries. However, our narrator is deliberately unreliable, which can be incredibly confusing for the reader here and there.
The looming twist also felt kind of disappointing in the end, as I thought the whole thing was grander in the whole scheme of things.
Nonetheless, Piranesi kept me entertained for long stretches, and if you want to dig deeper, you'll certainly find plenty of metaphors of great significance. Indeed, the book is very beautifully written!
I really enjoyed the book, the smaller world that the protagonist lives in is very simple and is intriguing, but not somewhere I feel I need to return to. The larger universe though is interesting, with its reality plus a little magic vibe. I enjoyed the unravelling mystery and it compelled me to read it much faster than I've read books of similar size. The first few chapters describing the House reminded me of the descriptions of The Sleeper Service in Iain M Banks' book Excession. To the point where I thought the book was going to go in a sci-fi direction.
Interesting concept (not entirely unfamiliar from previous Susanna Clarke novels), immaculate pacing. I don't often say this bugg this would make a great movie.
4.5 Quite a Dunsanian read at times, Susanna Clarke does have quite a better grip on characters and psychology than Dunsany. Here the cyclopean other-worldly House is always linked to the characters and how they perceive it. The feeling of extreme longing is still there, though. It is not a book that surprises the reader much, but it is an extremely beautiful read. Clarke really makes things come alive. The only criticism I have is that the psychologic changes at the end and the resolution of the story seem a little too facile to me.
A very strange book; It is about 250 pages. Needs you to invest about 100 pages in very slow prose before you start to enjoy it, and then Zoom!
This book was a delight, a mystery, a found footage, an idle appetizer popped into your mouth at a party out of boredom only to discover the nicest thing you’ve tasted in a year. Would pair well with The Slow Regard Of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss.
I found this book a bit slow for the first 50–60 pages, which are spent mostly describing the World without much of any sort of Plot happening. It only really begins to pick up around Part 3, when the mystery inherent to the setting starts to unravel, all through the eyes of a narrator not so much unreliable as naïve and lacking in knowledge, which makes him unable to understand things which are clear to the reader. It's the sort of book where it's worth reading (or at least skimming) the first few parts again to see what you missed the first read through.
As the title says, this will likely be the best book I'll read all year. It certainly was better than every book I read last year. I started the book yesterday evening and have basically spent my every waking moment since then reading it. I strongly recommend anyone who enjoys reading to pick this one up. It will be worth it.
I will not say anything on what it is actually about. The less you know, the more you will enjoy the book. Not really because of twists and turns but rather because you will see an astounding world laid out from the perspective of a very interesting main character.
The main thing this book reminded me of was the books I read in German class in my two last years at school. This is a very good thing (German was my favorite class). The book is fairly short and …
As the title says, this will likely be the best book I'll read all year. It certainly was better than every book I read last year. I started the book yesterday evening and have basically spent my every waking moment since then reading it. I strongly recommend anyone who enjoys reading to pick this one up. It will be worth it.
I will not say anything on what it is actually about. The less you know, the more you will enjoy the book. Not really because of twists and turns but rather because you will see an astounding world laid out from the perspective of a very interesting main character.
The main thing this book reminded me of was the books I read in German class in my two last years at school. This is a very good thing (German was my favorite class). The book is fairly short and straight to the point, it takes as much time as it needs to lay itself out elegantly but does not meander or waste your time. Also, it is so incredibly unique that it will stick with you for a while after finishing it (again, like all the books we read for class).
"A Beleza da Casa é imensurável; sua Bondade, infinita."
Esse livro é muito bom vaisefude
A Beleza da Casa é imensurável; sua Bondade, infinita.
Esse livro é muito bom vaisefude
If we were born in another world what form would the shadows cast upon the walls of our cave take? What mythologies and art would inform our identity? What are the limits that malicious people have to do harm through warping and confining our realities? How does the society around me shape the person I am at any given time?
Piranesi explores these questions in a labyrinth of an endless house full of statues that is flooded by the sea. The answers are in the faces of our neighbors and in the hushing pose of the faun.
Haunting, gentle, and somehow, serendipitously, just the perfect followon to [b:Anathem|7914507|Anathem|Neal Stephenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328123532l/7914507.SY75.jpg|6163095] and to two books on schizophrenia—but it would take way too long to explain why.
Some writers have incredible imaginations; some, compassion; some, talent; Clarke has them all and more. She drew me in from the opening quotes, even before the opening pages, and kept me hooked. The way she invents a baffling weird world, shoves you into it, uncomprehending, but also gives you just enough to navigate along and make gradual sense of it. The ambiguities that keep you wondering, then revisiting your understanding of the story. The charm and wonder with which she infuses it all.
There were times when the narrative gimmick (first-person journal) felt contrived, enough so to jostle me out of the story: “hmmm, I need some exposition here.” And her villains—as in her other books—are just eversoslightly more sociopathic than …
Haunting, gentle, and somehow, serendipitously, just the perfect followon to [b:Anathem|7914507|Anathem|Neal Stephenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328123532l/7914507.SY75.jpg|6163095] and to two books on schizophrenia—but it would take way too long to explain why.
Some writers have incredible imaginations; some, compassion; some, talent; Clarke has them all and more. She drew me in from the opening quotes, even before the opening pages, and kept me hooked. The way she invents a baffling weird world, shoves you into it, uncomprehending, but also gives you just enough to navigate along and make gradual sense of it. The ambiguities that keep you wondering, then revisiting your understanding of the story. The charm and wonder with which she infuses it all.
There were times when the narrative gimmick (first-person journal) felt contrived, enough so to jostle me out of the story: “hmmm, I need some exposition here.” And her villains—as in her other books—are just eversoslightly more sociopathic than seems absolutely necessary. No matter: this was delightful and memorable and (for me, today) oh so timely.
A perfect beach read.
Seems to share many tropes with old school interactive fiction. I wonder if that was intentional?
A book that is very hard to describe and even harder to forget. Clocking in at only about 250 pages (quite the turnaround from her last book, [b:Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|14201|Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|Susanna Clarke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1357027589l/14201.SY75.jpg|3921305], which has over 1,000), it tells the story of Piranesi, a man wandering / exploring in a huge labyrinth. He carefully journals his travels, tides and statues. Oh the statues! And twice a week, he meets with The Other, the only other being he knows, to see what the plans are. But gradually his situation become clearer to him and he begins to wonder about his place of "entrapment".
Wow. Just wow. It took a bit for me to get into the book, but much like the main character, I quickly became surrounded by the labyrinth itself and his meticulous descriptions. I am sure the character must be named after Giovanni …
A book that is very hard to describe and even harder to forget. Clocking in at only about 250 pages (quite the turnaround from her last book, [b:Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|14201|Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|Susanna Clarke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1357027589l/14201.SY75.jpg|3921305], which has over 1,000), it tells the story of Piranesi, a man wandering / exploring in a huge labyrinth. He carefully journals his travels, tides and statues. Oh the statues! And twice a week, he meets with The Other, the only other being he knows, to see what the plans are. But gradually his situation become clearer to him and he begins to wonder about his place of "entrapment".
Wow. Just wow. It took a bit for me to get into the book, but much like the main character, I quickly became surrounded by the labyrinth itself and his meticulous descriptions. I am sure the character must be named after Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an 18th century architect and artist, famous for his (fictitious and atmospheric "prisons"). And how the story ever so slowly unfolds itself and gradually worms its way into "reality" is truly amazing.
And yup, tears were even shed by the end. I became completely engrossed in the book and it clearly became a "can't put this down". She weaves a true magical realism through every believable page and you really inhabit both the world and Piranesi himself. A real master work of psychological writing. Wow.
