![]() There is a lot to take in here for both the narrator and the reader, but once we are used to all the terminology, the journey is easier. ![]() ![]() With him, we marvel at the unexpected and view how the force of Tides and the shining of Stars intermingle with the beauty of Statues – all seem to be in unison and speaking their own secret language. Our own narrator employs a Robinson Crusoe-style narrative and documents zealously and meticulously everything he sees. What is the meaning and the origin of this World, though? Many questions are left unanswered (for now), and the wait for answers is bittersweet. Through this person who carefully records his experience of the World around him, we soon learn of the Drowned Halls and Derelicts Halls, of mysterious Vestibules and Passageways “peopled” by hundreds of exotic human-like Statues, and of other wonders of the House. This is something that happens only once every eight year”, begins the narrator. “ When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of three Tides. There is simply no end to the uncanny beauty and fascination that the sentences evoke. From the very first sentence, Susanna Clarke invites the reader to discover and explore the new World filled with mystery and dreamy vistas. The book opens with passages of beauty and wonder. Amidst all the watery and architectural beauty, though, there is a want for slightly more meaning and depth, and it is unfortunate that the second part of the book falls into some very familiar and overused literary “thriller” tropes. In Piranesi, Susanna Clarke invented one mysterious, otherworldly place whose pull is irresistible, powerful and inescapable, and whose charm works like magic, saturating the reading experience with endless wonder, delight and fascination. What other mysteries does the House hold, and is there really a Sixteenth Person who may be residing in the Far-Distant Halls? These are the questions that start to bother our narrator as he is slowly forced to question the very nature of his existence in this bewildering World of Tides and Architectural Beauty. Then, cryptic messages start to appear in some Halls, and our narrator witnesses strange visions. Our narrator’s only human contact is the man only known as the Other, who also often frequents the Halls and who sees the World very differently from our narrator. In the House, architectural splendours meet natural wonders – sea Tides, bringing marine life and vegetation, often flood the seemingly infinite number of opulent Halls, where numerous enigmatic statues of all sizes daze and confuse. This time, we have a diary-like narrative and our narrator observes, records and catalogues a curious World around him – the House. Piranesi is a new fantasy novel by the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
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