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Piranesi

Susanna Clarke

4.49

The award-winning, New York Times bestselling fantasy sensation that Madeline Miller called, "a miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling," Piranesi is an intoxicating, hypnotic novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality from the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands upon thousands of statues. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; and waves thunder up staircases, while 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.

"Spellbinding, strange, and unforgettably original" (Esquire), Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty.

FantasyLiterary FictionFictionScience FictionReligious FictionRomanceAdult
Pages
273
First published
November 12, 2020
Language
English
Edition
Print
ISBN
9781526634108

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Shelved by 16 Litcadians

Reviews

  • mysteriousreflectiverelaxingSlow-paced

    Started August 27, 2026 · Finished August 29, 2026

    This feels like it was written for me personally. Outstanding worldbuilding, cryptic narration, mystery that is gently unfolding, dark academia vibes, hopeful and calm and meticulous and lonely and beautiful. I will wander these Halls for a long time.

  • Finished January 17, 2026

    3.5 ⭐ I swear this had to have started out as a fever.

  • Finished July 2, 2025

  • adventurousmysteriousreflectiveMedium-paced

    Started March 27, 2024 · Finished March 29, 2024

  • Started March 25, 2023 · Finished March 25, 2023

  • Finished November 8, 2022