Fantasy

Primary category

Piranesi

By Susanna Clarke

Piranesi lives in the House, an apparently endless world of classical halls, monumental statues, birds, clouds, and seawater. He maps its spaces, predicts its dangerous tides, cares for its dead, and records his discoveries in journals. His only regular companion is the Other, a sharply contrasting figure who treats the House as the possible repository of secret knowledge. When signs suggest that another living person has entered this world, Piranesi begins examining inconsistencies in his records and gaps in his memory. What starts as an account of solitary exploration gradually becomes a mystery about identity, captivity, trust, and the uses of knowledge. Susanna Clarke combines a fantastical setting with the investigative momentum of a psychological mystery, making the narrator’s careful observations both the substance of the world and the means by which its hidden history can be recovered.