Piranesi

New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction
World Fantasy Awards Finalist


The instant New York Times bestselling novel from the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic book set in a dreamlike alternative reality.

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.

For readers of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.

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Published Sep 28, 2021

272 pages

Average rating: 8.23

1,866 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

jess.withbooks
Jun 05, 2025
10/10 stars
“The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.”
Mmarostegui
May 20, 2025
10/10 stars
This was an amazing story. I loved this so much! Piranesi is a man who used to be called Matthew Sorrenson and he was tricked into entering into a mythical castle which became his entire world. He suffered some kind of breakdown, but in reality he was in an alternate universe that he survived in for a long time that was a castle, with broken statues. The man who "kidnapped" him did so to perform research on this alternate reality (that is/isn't a real place) for years, and during that time Matthew "forgot" who he was and Piranesi was born. When a police officer (Raphael) rescues him and tells him he has parents and a sister who miss him and can't find him, he is unsure whether he wants to go back to the "other" world or whether he wants to stay in his new home. This book suggestion came from Google Gemini in order to satisfy the Real Harder Book Challenge of 2025, for the prompt of a genre-blending book. It fit the bill, and was such a joy to read.
Anonymous
Jul 05, 2024
8/10 stars
Piranesi lives in the House, which seems infinitely large, made up of labyrinths and filled with statues that Piranesi has catalogued and memorized. It's also surrounded by water, and Piranesi has also learned the rhythm of the tides and when to avoid certain areas so as not to be swept away. As far as he knows, only two people exist in the world -- himself and the Other, the well-dressed gentleman who meets with him regularly. There are the bones of the dead that lie within the House, so Piranesi realizes there were more people at one point, but he can't seem to remember this. But he lovingly looks after the bones and holds them in high regard. He keeps a journal, and we slowly learn through his journal entries what is really going on...
Zoe E.
Nov 08, 2022
7/10 stars
Piranesi lives in a fantastical world - a labyrinthine building full of statues and inundated by recurring tides, inhabited only by him and one other person ("the other"). Once you get through the endless descriptions of rooms and artwork, the book proceeds quite quickly. The detective story that unfurls is heavily foreshadowed and the science fiction aspects of how Piranesi ended up where he is are somewhat hastily glossed over. However, I was drawn in to the book and to Piranesi's unique world view, and invested in his outcome.
Dahlface
Jul 01, 2025
10/10 stars
Wow. As I read this book I kept exclaiming, “what a wonderful book!” and in response my husband kept asking me, “what is it about?” “what genre is it?” I had no answer for him. Piranesi is unlike any book I’ve ever read. It grabbed me immediately and I read it nearly straight through to the end. What a brilliant imagination Susanna Clarke has. While I cannot describe it in a way that will do it justice, I can urge you to read this book!

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