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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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272 pages

Average rating: 8.28

1,733 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Kimboslicendice
Feb 20, 2025
10/10 stars
Loved it! All the twists, turns and the main character and his writing.
Pferdina
Feb 14, 2025
8/10 stars
I enjoyed the world of the House, with its endless Halls and Vestibules, the many Statues, the Sea and the Stars. I liked the character of Piranesi. Reading this was soothing.
allmimsyweretheborogoves
Feb 14, 2025
8/10 stars
At first I wasn't really sure that I liked this book. A lot of the descriptions seemed meaningless and redundant, and the opening C.S. Lewis quote combined with the setting made it pretty obvious that this book was going to be based in some way on Plato's Allegory of the Cave (which it definitely was). But it also came highly recommended, so I read on. While I still feel like it would have been better if it hadn't given so many redundant descriptions and lists, at some point a part of me fell in love with the Child of the House. I knew from the beginning that the Other was bad, the way he presented himself immediately marked him as the villain of the story, so when 16 appeared, I wanted her to help Piranesi. What was so magical about this book was that while Rafael did help Piranesi, she didn't save him, she instead empowered him and gave him the tools to save himself, and that is exactly what made the ending wonderful.
AmblinLynch
Feb 13, 2025
10/10 stars
This really is one of the best I’ve ever read. So easy to get through with its short page count but is so dense with themes that you still feel like you’ve traveled a journey once you’re done. The less you know about this book going into it the better. 5/5
Anonymous
Feb 11, 2025
10/10 stars
Wow this book totally gripped me. I don't think I've ever become so thoughtfully inclined to listen to the ins and outs of a story before, than I have with this one. Susanna weaves morality and fantasy into a literal labyrinth that we navigate alongside Piranesi. And the way the story reveals itself as to being both a comfort, yet also mildly horrifying at the same time is crazy good.

The book's ending leaves the reader in a very calm suspense though - what really is, versus what really isn't, and usually I hate that in stories, but in this case it works perfectly.

Highly recommend listening to this, as Chiwetel Ejiofor gives some masterclass narration.

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