hardcover, 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.
It's hard to overstate how much this book feels written specifically for me - I love books with any sort of physically improbable gigantic building, fantasy books where people enter other worlds, academic thrillers, etc - and Piranesi nails the blend perfectly. A sheer delight with an extremely thoughtful denouement.
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.
Part fantasy, sci-fi and mystery. One of the books I wished I have written.
I really liked this story! Glad it got put on my radar from Jacob Geller's video on infinity.
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.
Practical stuff out of the way first: This book is written as a series of journal entries. It's reasonably short (not a heavy tome like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell). I read it in bits and pieces over the course of a couple of days.
The book is like a dream that slowly becomes more lucid over time. It's weird, but in a dream-like way. Or, you could say that it starts out like a dream and then slowly turns into a mystery. The author manages to build a very vivid (if somewhat empty) world over the short number of pages. It's one of those books (or movies) that changes your thinking a bit during the time you're reading it and makes everything feel a bit surreal.
I am struggling to come up with a fair comparison to another book. It's like a cross between a surreal dream-like movie (think …
Practical stuff out of the way first: This book is written as a series of journal entries. It's reasonably short (not a heavy tome like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell). I read it in bits and pieces over the course of a couple of days.
The book is like a dream that slowly becomes more lucid over time. It's weird, but in a dream-like way. Or, you could say that it starts out like a dream and then slowly turns into a mystery. The author manages to build a very vivid (if somewhat empty) world over the short number of pages. It's one of those books (or movies) that changes your thinking a bit during the time you're reading it and makes everything feel a bit surreal.
I am struggling to come up with a fair comparison to another book. It's like a cross between a surreal dream-like movie (think David Lynch), a man alone on a deserted island narrative, and an urban fantasy novel.
It does get a bit violent toward the end but not in a particularly gruesome way.
The main reason I'm giving it 4 stars rather than 5 is because it started to feel a bit rushed toward the end, like some stuff was skipped over for the sake of not going on too long or feeling too repetitive. The other reason is that the secondary villain in the book is gay and that feels stereotypical and old fashioned, like a random element inserted from a book written 40+ years ago.
