Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Piranesi | 2020 | Susanna Clarke | Buy |
Piranesi (2020) is Susanna Clarke’s second novel, published sixteen years after Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It is a much shorter and more intimate book, written in the form of journal entries by a narrator who lives in what he calls the House: a vast structure of seemingly endless halls, staircases, and vestibules, all filled with classical statues. The sea enters the lower halls in regular tides, and clouds form near the upper ceilings.
The narrator, who calls himself Piranesi, records his observations of the House with careful devotion. He knows every statue, tracks the tides, and believes the House to be the entire world. The only other living person he knows of is a man he calls the Other, who visits periodically to discuss research. As the story unfolds, Piranesi starts finding evidence that challenges everything he believes about his situation.
The novel is named after Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an 18th-century Italian artist famous for his etchings of imaginary prisons. Clarke has said the book grew from a long period of illness during which she could not work on larger projects. Despite its brevity, Piranesi won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for several other awards. It is unrelated to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and can be read with no prior knowledge of Clarke’s other work.