![]() The Other also desires Piranesi help him with a quest he has, for some sort of ancient and powerful knowledge, which he believes the House possesses and which he wishes to acquire. In contrast, the man known as the Other only appears on certain days at certain times – Piranesi is not sure what he does when they do not have their meetings. For Piranesi, there is nothing except this place where he is now….although as we get further into the story, the various bits and pieces of information the reader is given suggests that this is definitely not the only place that he has ever been. He knows the House will provide for him, it will be kind to him. For him, the environment around him is everything. Piranesi is almost childlike in his character – he lives and breathes what he calls the House, exploring its various halls, rooms and vestibules, communicating with the birds that make their homes in the upper levels, fishing for sustenance in the lower levels. Even the name given to him by the Other, Piranesi, is a kind of academic joke. I recognised a few descriptions (the Minotaur, for example and the description of a statue that I think is definitely a The Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe reference). People far cleverer than me, perhaps well versed in mythology or classic literature will probably understand some of the statue descriptions and/or maybe even determine some more meaning from some of the rooms or the circumstances. Maybe that’s when I began to think, I really want to know what is going on here. I’m not entirely sure when my thoughts changed – maybe when Piranesi realised there was another Other – not the person he refers to as the Other, but another person who has come and left a message. The writing was good and I was interested in what was going on but I wasn’t super invested in it. For probably the first 100p, I was pretty ambivalent about this as a story. I have to admit, for a large portion of this story, I was like….ok, what is happening? I wasn’t sure if this was an elaborate delusion inside of his head and maybe the Other was a doctor? Was it actually real? Was it an alternate universe type novel? I spent a little time mulling different theories over in my head as I read this. ![]() Piranesi keeps extensive journals of all he sees, what he thinks, referencing and cross-referencing but when he gets questions that confuse him, he begins to realise that some of what he knows or thinks, may not be real…or may have been changed….or he may have lost memories. However when the Other asks Piranesi questions about things that do not involve the place where he is, these words have no meaning. Piranesi has an encyclopaedic knowledge of this place – once he’s visited a hall or room, he never forgets where it is and what it contains. The only alive person Piranesi sees is a man he refers to as ‘the Other’, who meets with him regularly to ask for information about the place they are, which the Other calls the Labyrinth. There are the bones of people in some places and Piranesi pays them respects and leaves them offerings. Occasionally, at intervals that Piranesi has researched, you must avoid the tides as they sweep up higher than at other times. There are tides that consume the lower levels, which provide fish and other seafood for Piranesi’s nourishment. It’s a place of many halls, many rooms, many different places and levels. Our narrator is known as Piranesi – he lives in a….I don’t want to say house, it feels inaccurate, even though it’s the term used in the book. This is under 300 but for such a slim little novel, it packs a lot into it. It’s very short, in direct contrast to Susanna Clarke’s other novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which is close to 1000 pages. It’s definitely one of the more unusual books I’ve read….but I liked it. 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. 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 Piranesi is not afraid he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. Blurb : 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. ![]()
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