Piranesi

The author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell returns with a hypnotic novel set in a dreamlike reality.

Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are monumental, with walls covered in thousands of statues, and its corridors are endless. Within the labyrinth of halls, there is an ocean trapped where waves rumble and tides flood the chambers. But Piranesi is not afraid: he understands the sea's onslaught as well as the labyrinth's pattern, as he explores the limits of his world and advances, with the help of a man named The Other, in a scientific investigation to reach The Great Secret Knowledge.

Critics have said...
«Seventeen years after the wonderful Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke returns to the novel with a very personal reinterpretation of the labyrinth myth. Piranesi, the young protagonist of this novel, is a kind of castaway who, instead of an island, explores the fantastic and meaningful house in which he seems trapped. The house is colossal, lavish, and complicated. It is filled with statues and seems to contain an ocean in one of its corridors. With the meticulousness of a naturalist and the innocence of the noble savage (the original Piranesi, an architect and engraver specializing in fantastic prisons, was a contemporary of Rousseau), the protagonist records his progress and discoveries in a diary, as well as his conversations with another mysterious inhabitant he sometimes encounters. Among the inexhaustible readings of Piranesi, one stands out: the one that speaks to us of reason surrounded by the mists of magic. Under the patronage of Borges and Escher, Susanna Clarke has written a fascinating novel.»
El Correo

«Susanna Clarke demonstrates with her overflowing imagination that you don't need thousand-page tomes to build an epic fantasy world capable of inducing an intoxicating sense of wonder. Through Piranesi's naive eyes, she observes the everyday from a prism of innocent fascination and ensnares us with her charm in a familiar atmosphere, yet sufficiently altered to be magical. As Jo Walton did in Among Others, Susanna Clarke pays a heartfelt tribute to the virtues of the fantasy genre in Piranesi. [...] The result is a simply masterful novel, a moving and exciting story that reads like a thriller and reminds us of the power of fantasy as a ultimate refuge, an inexhaustible source of solace and escapism, but also of comfort. It is reassuring to know that when you leave the House, something of the House stays with you forever.»
Generación Reader

«It reminds us of the power of fiction to transport us to another world and thus broaden our understanding of our own. [...] It exceeds expectations in every way.»
The Guardian

«Like a fever dream: disorienting, fascinating, persistently strange. [...] It seeps into the subconscious with riddles that go far beyond the last page. Brilliant and singular.»
The Sunday Times

«A subtly comical and completely seductive read.»
Daily Mail

«Spectacular. [...] A second novel that borders on perfection.»
The Times

«A dazzling fable about loneliness, imagination, and memory.»
The Spectator

«Beautiful, strange, fascinating.»
Mail on Sunday

«Why not dare to read Susanna Clarke's new book to travel into the subconscious without needing to take anything?»
New York Magazine

«An addictive read of the highest quality. [...] An outstanding feat.»
The Wall Street Journal

«Clarke's unique wit and imagination remain intact. A much more compressed story but no less captivating.»
The Boston Globe

«Immensely insightful.»
The Washington Post