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Piranesi cover art

Piranesi

By: Susanna Clarke
Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
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Summary

Bloomsbury presents Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Winner of the 2021 Audie Awards Audiobook of the Year.

Winner of the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction.

Shortlisted for The Costa Novel of The Year Award.

A Sunday Times and New York Times best seller.

Chosen as A Book of The Year by the Times, Guardian, Observer, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, I Paper, New Statesman, Spectator, Time Magazine, Times Literary Supplement, BBC Culture, Netgalley and the Church Times.

The spectacular new audiobook from the best-selling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, ‘one of our greatest living authors,’ New York Magazine.

Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.

In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.

Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?

Lost texts must be found, secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.

The beauty of the House is immeasurable; its kindness infinite.

©2020 Susanna Clarke (P)2020 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"What a world Susanna Clarke conjures into being.... Piranesi is an exquisite puzzle-box." (David Mitchell)

"It’s always great to have some fiction to heartily recommend, and while there’s been stiff competition this year, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke has won out in the end. A masterful work of weird fiction, it’s a novel that grips, perplexes and moves you, usually all at once!" (Observer, The Best Books of 2020)

"The fiction, nonfiction and poetry that deepened our understanding, ignited our curiosity and helped us escape.... For fantasy readers often eager to get lost in mystical worlds and escape the complications of real life, Piranesi’s predicament deeply resonates." (Time, Books of the Year)

What listeners say about Piranesi

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Slow grind, for me

Notwithstanding the sophistication attested to many listeners, I have to be honest and admit that I reached halfway without experiencing any spark of interest or emotional connection with the text. The story and I just did not gel, though it evidently turned on the lights for other listers/readers.

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97 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful and Brilliant



Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi is compelling, clever, and couldn’t be a more fitting return for the the author who sixteen years ago brought us the brilliant Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

A modern allegoric tale that works beautifully on all its levels; I’ve never regretted my spoiler-free approach to reviews more, as I really want to discuss the allegory at the heart of this intriguing story. Simultaneously simple and complex, every piece seems to have its place both on the surface and below, the labyrinth setting layered and reflected in characters and themes.

As I say, it seems the perfect return for Clarke and it made me wonder, on top of the dominant metaphor, how much her own experience was was imbued into the foundation. She’d been so wildly successful with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, then became ill, leading to the long gap between novels. As someone who’s followed a similar (if more humble) path, I can’t help but feel this novel may be closer to the author’s heart and mind than perhaps any of us can know. But, this theory is another indicator of the brilliance of the book—it’s one of the stories that will probably mean something different to everyone, allowing readers to find in it pieces of themselves, their own rooms to explore within their own labyrinthine interior worlds.

It’s the first book I’ve heard narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor and I hope it won’t be the last—his voice is so easy to listen to and his intonation is lovely and subtle. Not all actors are fantastic narrators, but he definitely is. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

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73 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Bewitching

Strange, beautiful and filled with the magical. We spend our time with the delightful creature Piranesi who lives an odd life in an even odder place. Gradually we learn his story and although it's signalled well in advance it is no less beautiful for that.

After a 17 year wait for a second book from Susanna Clarke it would be easy for it to be a disappointment. This most definitely is worth the wait. I found myself smiling often as I read, there is so much to enjoy here from the sublime writing to the gentle character of Piranesi himself and the odd and glittering world he inhabits.

I recently re-read Mister Norrel and Jonathan Strange and loved it again, though it is punishingly long and could definitely have been shorter and just as good. This is book is a short and delightful thing. Strongly recommend.

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49 people found this helpful

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Dark but compelling

An exploration of altered states and Outsider concepts. Well crafted but may have complex impact on those with some mental illnesses.

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32 people found this helpful

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A big disappointment

Great narration couldn't overcome the listiness of this book, was greatly looking forward to it having just had the pleasure of listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but, original as the idea is it doesn't hold up, a handling that might have been bearable in a short story quickly becomes tedious.

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27 people found this helpful

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Over long short story

What a disappointment. The start is really dragged out and so is the end. The early spoilers give away enough of the plot that intrigue doesn't last. The key scenes are great but then back to slow predictability for the wind up.

Not what I had hoped for...

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26 people found this helpful

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Not for me

I wanted to love this book, but I found it tedious. The narration was spot on, but the storyline was lacking for me.

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22 people found this helpful

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Over-stretched one-track tale

Intriguing concept, excellent narration ... but a very slow starter and a one-track story arc that was overstretched and thin.
Yes, I get the internal v. external, reality v. mental allegories, but the concept could have been explored equally well (and more efficiently) in a short story.
I don't regret listening to 'Piranesi' but I'm afraid it didn't quite live up to some of its hyperbolic reviews.

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12 people found this helpful

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The worst audiobook I've heard by some margin

There are some books which I'm convinced people rate as good because they feel they should. This book might be a work of literary genius, but this doesn't make it entertaining. It's pointless, rudderless and boring.

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9 people found this helpful

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Breathtakingly beautiful

A wonderfully written story perfectly narrated. I could have listened forever. What an excellent follow-up to Strange and Norrell.

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8 people found this helpful