Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - 2020 - A Novel - 249 Pages
Winner 2021 Women’s Fiction Award
A marvelous Review in The Guardian
An illuminating post from Vox.com
As I finished Piranesi I wondered what can I say about my Love for this book that would not sound totally hyperbolic. I have been under government mandated lockdown in Metro Manila for 560 days. If i could keep Reading books like Piranesi then let day 1000 come.
The items I have linked above do a much better job describing the World constructed in Piranesi than I could.
As began to wander around in the structure that is Piranisi’s world, he is the narrator I thought what can this mean? We see seemingly near endless corridors with thousands of unique statues. There is even an Ocean contained in the edifice, with birds of all sorts. The story is relayed as a series of journal entries by Piranesi. At first Piranesi thinks there is only one other person, he calls him “The Other”. He things over time fifteen others lived inside. He knows “Piranesi” is not his real name, The Other named him.
He gradually discovers there maybe a third person. The Other acknowledges this warns him the third person will try to kill him. As I Marvel at the creative power behind this I begin to see many possible symbolic readings.
Then about one third into the novel it turned for me into a spellbinding slowly unraveling account of who Piranesi really was, How he got inside and much more. I was totally captivated it was just so interesting. A World outside The structure evolves for us, inhabited by strange, fascinating, sinister, intellectual beings I found fascinating.
“Susanna Clarke’s debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. It won the British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year, the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award in 2005. Susanna Susanna Clarke is also the author of the short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu. Piranesi was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, and was awarded Audies Audiobook of the Year, shortlisted for the British Book Awards Audiobook of the Year, the Costa Novel Award, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the RSL Encore Awards, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Awards, the British Science Fiction Association’s Best Novel, the Bloggers Book Award; was a finalist for the Goodreads Fantasy Book of the Year, the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction and the Locus Awards; and was longlisted for the 2021 Booktube Prize. Susanna Clarke lives in Derbyshire.” From The book
This novel sounds incredible, Mel! Thanks so much for the intro--I will take a look at the other reviews you mention!
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