Winner of the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction, this short inventive and clever fantasy is also a genre defying lighthearted literary mystery with some philosophical comments on the human condition, a bit of mythology, and hints of ancient history–a rich tapestry of themes.
Though I am not a huge fan of world-building, the author drew me in with a fascinating setting, and made me care almost immediately about the main character Piranesi. This is a book I would re-read in order to discover things that I might have missed the first time and to appreciate more fully Clarke’s beautiful writing. Alex Preston of The Guardian said of it, Piranesi is …”the most gloriously peculiar book I’ve read in years.”
The house that Piranesi lives in is no ordinary building. Its rooms are a vast labyrinth, lined with unique statues and subject to ocean tides and inclement weather (even inside), all vividly described. Piranesi doesn’t quite know how he got there or why, but is quite comfortable spending his days cataloguing what he knows and trying to understand. He lives to explore the house.
Piranesi is a kind, sensible, likeable, innocent character who seems to be a reliable narrator–someone the reader can trust. There is one other person in the house, simply called The Other, who Piranesi meets with twice a week. The Other, on the other hand, is on a quest to find A Great and Secret Knowledge and seems to have a shady agenda as he tries to recruit Piranesi to help him in his quest. Soon stranger things begin to happen and further clues are revealed, and a terrible truth begins to unravel.
Joanne's Reading Blog 
Sounds great! I have added it to my list.
Thanks Joanne!
Sarah
Sent from my iPhone
Joanne,
I LOVED Piranesi. You are correct that re-reading reveals ever more. I listened to it 3 times. The audiobook narrator is wonderful, if you haven’t listened. He inhabits Piranesi. I’m planning to reread it every year.