fantasy
Piranesi
Wow. This novel is something unique. I wanted to
read this for a while now. I once before started it, but then I put it
down because it was too confusing at the beginning. But I started it
again, and I’m glad I did. I don’t think I read anything like this
before.
Piranesi lives in a strange, labyrinth-like world in a vast house with many halls and enormous statues. All he knows are these halls, statues, ocean, birds that fly by, and one other human being–who he simply calls the Other. It’s nice to read about Piranesi, who knows nothing but this strange world. He observes and approaches everything with such innocence, and then he carefully takes notes in his diaries.
This is a slow-paced and atmospheric read. In the beginning, as I wrote before, nothing makes sense. But I encourage you to read on. It gets better.
Susanna Clarke was born in Nottingham in 1959. A nomadic childhood was spent in towns in Northern England and Scotland. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and has worked in various areas of non-fiction publishing, including Gordon Fraser and Quarto. In 1990, she left London and went to Turin to teach English to stressed-out executives of the Fiat motor company. The following year she taught English in Bilbao.
She returned to England in 1992 and spent the rest of that year in County Durham, in a house that looked out over the North Sea. There she began working on her first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
From 1993 to 2003, Susanna Clarke was an editor at Simon and Schuster's Cambridge office, where she worked on their cookery list. She has published seven short stories and novellas in US anthologies. One, "The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse," first appeared in a limited-edition, illustrated chapbook from Green Man Press. Another, "Mr Simonelli or The Fairy Widower," was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award in 2001.
She lives in Cambridge with her partner, the novelist and reviewer Colin Greenland.
Piranesi lives in a strange, labyrinth-like world in a vast house with many halls and enormous statues. All he knows are these halls, statues, ocean, birds that fly by, and one other human being–who he simply calls the Other. It’s nice to read about Piranesi, who knows nothing but this strange world. He observes and approaches everything with such innocence, and then he carefully takes notes in his diaries.
»The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.«
This is a slow-paced and atmospheric read. In the beginning, as I wrote before, nothing makes sense. But I encourage you to read on. It gets better.
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| Goodreads |
Details:
- author: Susanna Clarke
- full title: Piranesi
- genre: literary fiction, fantasy, magical realism
- format/type: bookfiction
- topics:
- publisher: Bloomsbury
- publish date: September 15, 2020
- pages: 245
My Rating of the Book:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
About the Author:
She returned to England in 1992 and spent the rest of that year in County Durham, in a house that looked out over the North Sea. There she began working on her first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
From 1993 to 2003, Susanna Clarke was an editor at Simon and Schuster's Cambridge office, where she worked on their cookery list. She has published seven short stories and novellas in US anthologies. One, "The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse," first appeared in a limited-edition, illustrated chapbook from Green Man Press. Another, "Mr Simonelli or The Fairy Widower," was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award in 2001.
She lives in Cambridge with her partner, the novelist and reviewer Colin Greenland.
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