Reading Log as of July 30, 2025 - Piranesi

 

I finished Susanna Clarke's Piranesi which had been sitting on my shelves forever and it took a couple tries to get into it. I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell so was looking forward to reading it. 3.5 stars 

"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."

Piranesi lives in a labyrinth of halls, communicating only with 'the other', helping him with research. It's an alternate world devised by a madman and Piranesi doesn't question it until one day the other says something strange that arouses his suspicion. Piranesi begins to read his old journals and learns all about a life he'd forgotten.   ****