title: Piranesi by: Clarke, Susanna published: 2020-11-12 read: 2021-09 preview

Piranesi is a magick book. 

Piranesi is its main character, the narrator of the story.  He’s caught in a space where, a world consisting of chambers, rooms, with the sea below and the sky above.  Each room, each hall is decorated with statues, and of course there are animals everywhere: birds, sea creatures,…  Piranesi lives there, heating with seaweed, eating fish, loving life.

And there’s someone else, “The Other”, whom he meets twice a week.

From the beginning to the end of this magickal book, it’s not clear if this world Piranesi lives in is real, or if it is just his dream.  And maybe it is not relevant: he’s happy, discovering his vast world over the course of years.

Things change, of course, he discovers others, and the story unravels from there.

Piranesi’s character is not developing too much.  To me he appeared quite naive, probably thus put in my head on purpose by the author.  And I think that that works well; at the same time, the Other, though hardly ever present, becomes increasingly multidimensional.

Not a dull moment when reading this book; exciting from the first page.  A highly recommended read, and a book which I never forgot.