Image: Audiobook of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. Cover design by David Mann. Illustrations © Shutterstock. Image used on this blog under the “Fair dealing for criticism or review” provision of the Commonwealth Copyright Act, 1968. Background design by me via Canva.
Piranesi lives in the House. The House has many Halls – infinite numbers – and they are full of an infinite variety of white marble statues. The sea washes through the House and Piranesi lives on fish, mussels and seaweed that he gathers from its waters. He tends to the thirteen dead that also live in the House, talking to them and bringing them offerings of food, drink and flowers, and he explores the Halls and documents his findings in his journals that his friend, the Other, supplies him. Piranesi’s scientific data and observations help the Other in his pursuit of special knowledge. One day Piranesi learns of another person – Sixteen – whose existence starts to change things.
It’s impossible to capture the charm and wonder of this novel with a plot taster. I also don’t want to give any more plot details because that would completely spoil the experience of reading it (or, in my case, listening to it). It’s a strange and beautiful novel. It also has some intertextual allusions to C.S. Lewis, which I am 110% here for.
It’s not long and it’s not difficult. Everyone should read it. This would be an excellent related text for the Reimagined Worlds module for NSW’s English Extension 1 and could also potentially work for the Intersecting Worlds and Literary Mindscapes modules as well.
Title: Piranesi
Author: Susanna Clarke
Cover design: Design by David Mann. Illustrations © Shutterstock.
First published: Bloomsbury Press, 2020
Audio: narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bloomsbury Press
Awards: Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2021; Audie Award (Audiobook of the Year), 2021
Genre: fantasy, speculative fiction, literary fiction
Representation: n/a
Suitability: years 7-12, but more suited to seniors
Fyi: kidnapping, vague & minor references to a cult, death
Themes: identity, memory, the environment, other worlds, compassion, myth, science, religion, ambition, the ancient world
Literary features: journal entries, first person narrator, setting, voice, intertextual allusions
NSW syllabus: potential related text for Texts & Human Experiences (English Standard/Advanced); potential text for Literary Worlds (12 English Extension 1); potential related text for Reimagined Worlds, Intersecting Worlds or Literary Mindscapes (12 Extension 1); wide reading
If you like this, try: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift or C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, especially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Magician’s Nephew
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE LIBRARY... 
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