hardcover, 272 pages
English language
Published Sept. 14, 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.
L'histoire est originale, mais elle aurait mieux convenu à une nouvelle. Là, étirée sur 300 pages, ça traine en longueur, et le livre a fini par me faire l'effet d'être aussi vide et interminable que les pièces parcourues par le personnage principal.
I didn't know what to expect coming into this and I firmly recommend trying to go in with as little knowledge as you possibly can. The unfolding that occurs throughout the narrative was the payoff, the end just another event along a wave of experience.
A library book that has inevitably made it to my own collection, amongst the shelf of favorites that are destined to be reread over and over again.
This is one of those books that's unlike any other. It's surreal and dreamy and the sheer "what the heck's going on?" factor compelled me to read it all in one day.
A novel like this - light on plot, with an extremely limited cast of characters, told in an epistolary style - really sinks or swims on the narrative voice. Luckily the titular Piranesi is fun to read, and comes across as practical and clever, curious and sweet. His ignorance is charming rather than frustrating, and of course his naivete is all part of the mystery.
Highly recommended to anyone who loves an atmospheric and/or experimental story.
Al principio no sabía muy bien dónde me había metido y estaba un poco perdida, pero enseguida me ha enganchado. En cuanto estás apunto de aburrirte, pasan cosas y te enganchas más. La segunda mitad no podía dejarlo.
Nice little book. Had to read it in one sitting.
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.
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.
I picked this book because of its Hugo Award nomination. I had read 4 of the 6 nominations (or at least started 3 and finished 2 and passed on a fourth), so I wanted to read more.
If the name Piranesi evokes to you labyrinths, stairs, halls, chambers, statues, you're in luck. The whole book is filled to the brim with these. It's also filled with a man called Piranesi, who lives in these halls. Who wanders in them, content of being the only person in this world—or I should say, the 15th, but 13 of them are dead, and the Other is, well… a friend, for lack of a better word?
Susanna Clarke has written the most surprising book I've read in the last year, at least. The ending left me wanting more, but I hope there won't be, it would just dilute the purity of the House, and …
I picked this book because of its Hugo Award nomination. I had read 4 of the 6 nominations (or at least started 3 and finished 2 and passed on a fourth), so I wanted to read more.
If the name Piranesi evokes to you labyrinths, stairs, halls, chambers, statues, you're in luck. The whole book is filled to the brim with these. It's also filled with a man called Piranesi, who lives in these halls. Who wanders in them, content of being the only person in this world—or I should say, the 15th, but 13 of them are dead, and the Other is, well… a friend, for lack of a better word?
Susanna Clarke has written the most surprising book I've read in the last year, at least. The ending left me wanting more, but I hope there won't be, it would just dilute the purity of the House, and the Mercies of its Statues.
