A Book That Haunts Me

Piranesi (Bloomsbury: 2020) by Susanna Clarke

I am haunted by Piranesi the book, but also by Piranesi, the man. He lives a strange and harsh life, but you would never guess this from his outlook and attitude. He feels very fortunate indeed, enjoying as he does the generosity and benevolence of The House - his most peculiar home. According to him, ‘the beauty of The House is immeasurable: its kindness infinite’.

The first part of the book left me eager to know who Piranesi is and what The House is. Only the first question is eventually answered and even then, I am baffled and intrigued by him. The House haunts me too, but for different reasons. Piranesi lives in a place that I find difficult to imagine, despite the many descriptions that our narrator offers. The vastness and strangeness of it defeat my imagination. Piranesi has personally seen 7,678 of its halls but knows that there are many more. The House covers many tens of kilometres. It is an underground world (I think!)

comprising these halls which are hundreds of metres

wide and long and tens of metres tall.

They are filled with vast statues of all manner of people and creatures, including a gorilla- and real seabirds and fishes. Yes, the rooms are close to the sea, and the tides come and go and Piranesi records and documents them with pedantic precision. The other person who lives there, ‘The Other’, meets with Piranesi twice a week at the same day and time when they work on their project to uncover ‘the great and secret knowledge’.

Piranesi, the man, captivates and haunts my imagination. He is trusting and child-like, but by no means is he childish. He survives alone in a hostile environment living off what the sea provides.

He has invented his own calendar, not because he has lost track of time, but to make it more interesting and memorable. The story takes place in ‘the year the albatross came to the south-western halls’. The albatross came to nest, assisted by Piranesi who provided some of his dried seaweed that he stored for winter fuel. His kindness also seems infinite. He feels no longing, self-pity, regret or rancour. He does, however, begin to feel doubt. As a scientist, he starts to question the existence of the great and secret knowledge. He further detects that The Other is testing his memory. Does he recall anything of Batter-Sea? Not at all. What is he talking about?

It soon becomes apparent that this mysterious world that the two men inhabit is not as far from ours as is first assumed. Piranesi has deduced that there have been 15 people in existence including the two men we now know. He knows this because he has found their skeletons, one of which is from a child. The Other wants him to go to a hall several days’ travel away and is refused. The reason? Piranesi’s shoes are not up to the task. Not a problem, he is later presented with a pair of new trainers. Why is the house more bountiful for him, Piranesi wonders, but does not dwell or challenge. His innocence can become frustrating but he is so other-worldly that I found frustration dissipating. I was always on Piranesi’s side and always wished him well.

The entry of ‘number 16’, the sixteenth human in existence, into the story brings more questioning and tension between the two men. Suddenly The Other cannot be trusted, and Piranesi starts to keep secrets from him. Later, we are taken back to a world that feels more familiar to us. The story began in a world that we would all recognise and Piranesi’s story began with his connection to an eccentric bullying academic with too many acolytes and not enough people prepared to ask him the difficult questions. We follow Piranesi back to our world and his family and friends. He does not feel settled there and returns many times to The House. What we don’t learn is pretty much anything else. Where is The House, indeed what is it? Is it part of our world or have they crossed a boundary that we are not even aware of? If so, how did they do it? The novel is better for not offering explanation. We are left with as many questions as we started with. Some of the questions are the same and I feel that it is a better story for it.

Alison Caldow