Piranesi

Structured like a thriller and burrows into the subconscious, throwing out puzzles long after the final page.

Piranesi astonished me. It is a miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling, at once a gripping mystery, an adventure through a brilliant new fantasy world, and a deep meditation on the human condition: feeling lost, and being found. I already want to be back in its haunting and beautiful halls!

Piranesi is a gorgeous, spellbinding mystery that gently unravels page by page. Precisely the sort of book that I love wordlessly handing to someone so they can have the pleasure of uncovering its secrets for themselves. This book is a treasure, washed up upon a forgotten shore, waiting to be discovered.

Lavishly descriptive, charming, heartbreaking and imbued with a magic that will be familiar to Clarke’s devoted readers, Piranesi will satisfy lovers of Jonathan Strange and win her many new fans.

A triumphant return … spectacular...
an irresistibly unspooling mystery set in a world of original strangeness.

In terms of invention and beauty, it’s a fitting heir to Clarke’s first book … Piranesi is a novel to revisit—a house you can open again, with statues touched by quiet thoughts and strange tides.

All of the strengths of Clarke’s writing are to be found here ... a subtle, deceptively complex work, though Clarke isn’t afraid of the occasional melodramatic flourish … here is Clarke’s talent in full flower;
Piranesi is the most purely enjoyable novel I’ve read in a long while.

A literary event.

A magical house with labyrinthine halls and tides that thunder up.

Remind(s) us of fiction’s power to take us to another world and expand our understanding of this one …
Piranesi performs a very different kind of magic from her beloved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: austere, otherworldly and profound, it’s best embarked on absolutely fresh.

Delightful, discombobulating …
Piranesi is detective of his own existence ... Gripping.

The book's grip on us tightens and tightens. By the end, everything is beautifully tied up and the novel proves to be magical in more ways than one.

Everything about this novel is a mystery. Fantastical, very strange and not to be missed!

Piranesi Will Wreck You: The novel establishes Susanna Clarke as one of our greatest living writers.

'....this infinitely clever novel....Clarke conceived of this story long before the coronavirus pandemic, but tragedy has made “Piranesi” resonate with a planet in quarantine. To abide in these pages is to find oneself happily detained in awe.'

What a world Susanna Clarke conjures into being, what a tick-tock-tick-tock of reveals, what a pure protagonist, what a morally-squalid supporting cast, what beauty, tension and restraint, and what a pitch-perfect ending. Piranesi is an exquisite puzzle-box far, far bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Weird and haunting and excellent.

Clarke wraps a twisty mystery inside a metaphysical fantasy in her extraordinary new novel . . . Sure to be recognized as one of the year’s most inventive.

Clarke creates an immersive world that readers can almost believe exists. This is a solid crossover pick for readers whose appreciation of magical fantasy leans toward V.E. Schwab or Erin Morgenstern.

As questions multiply and suspense mounts in this spellbinding, occult puzzle of a fable, one begins to wonder if perhaps the reverence, kindness, and gratitude practiced by Clarke’s enchanting and resilient hero aren't all the wisdom one truly needs.