Winner of the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel 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.
Staff Choice: Jurgen
This is a beautiful pocket-dimension on your bookshelf. Clarke's words go straight to the mind's eye, making Piranesi a very graphic story. It is a story about the beauty of loneliness and isolation. It taught me to appreciate the harmony in the world around me, and how a deep relationship can be so much more meaningful than a lot of shallow friendships.
Staff Choice: Jonna
If you ever want to go blind into a book this is the one to do it with. This story is best read without knowing anything about it so I am not going to tell you anything. It is a great mystery and very original. Go read, you won't regret it!