Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi is one of those books I keep seeing on lists of books you should read and after many years, curiosity finally got me to the point of reading it. It is a strange little book that I don’t think is for everyone, but I really like it.

Piranesi is about a man who lives in the House, an immense labyrinth of seemingly limitless corridors and halls that are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues. The House has three floors: the bottom floor is submerged in the ocean, the top floor is full of clouds, and the middle floor is where the man lives. The other inhabitant of the House is simply called the Other by the man, and the Other calls the man Piranesi. The Other visits Piranesi twice each week and Piranesi helps him with research into a Great and Secret Knowledge.

Other than that, Piranesi’s days are occupied by foraging for food, measuring the tides, visiting the seabirds that also live in the House and exploring the halls of the House. To most of us, it would be a mundane and difficult existence, but there is something so compelling about the House and that I found myself completely engrossed in Piranesi’s descriptions of his home and the statues that he is so fond of. I can picture the House so clearly in my mind and feel a strong desire to explore it, which is odd considering I usually find the idea of labyrinths to be disturbing.

Piranesi has absolutely no curiosity about why he is in the House and how he got there. He is just appreciative to live in such a wonderous place and thankful towards the House for providing him with food and shelter. Piranesi exists in a state of gratitude, a gratitude that I wish all of us felt towards our own world, a place that is just as wonderous as the House but is being destroyed by our insatiable desire for more – more knowledge, more resources, more power over other people.

There is more to Piranesi, though, than a story about a man wandering around a big house. The storytakes a turn when Piranesi discovers evidence that there may be third occupant of the House. It is obvious to the reader that the Other is hiding some terrible truths from Piranesi, the most horrifying of which is how Piranesi ended up in the House, but Piranesi is so infantilized by his limited knowledge and his love for the House that he grapples with stringing the facts together. Piranesi’s experience in the labyrinth makes me wonder if we were all better off as children before we gained knowledge and learned what people are really like. I found the ending to Piranesi’s story to be satisfying in a bittersweet way.