Piranesi

by Arthur Samuel, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Susanna Clarke · 2020

Piranesi is a metaphysical fantasy novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality. The protagonist, Piranesi, lives in a vast, mysterious structure known as the House, which consists of infinite halls, vestibules, and thousands of statues, with an ocean that periodically floods the lower levels. Piranesi documents his life and observations of the tides in journals, believing he and a man he calls 'The Other' are the only living people in the House. As he assists The Other in a search for 'Great and Secret Knowledge,' Piranesi begins to discover inconsistencies in his own journals and encounters strange clues that suggest his identity and the true nature of the House are far more complex than he realized. The story is a meditative exploration of memory, loneliness, identity, and the human desire to understand the unknown.