Piranesi

I chose to read Piranesi with my daughter as a little father/daughter book club. It wasn’t easy to pick a book we both agreed on buy Piranesi ticked a lot of the boxes that we both had. It was one of the books previously recommended to me by ChatGPT and I threw it in to the mix not expecting it to win out. But having read it, I am glad it did.

The book is set in a strange and very mysterious house that is described like an endless stately home, with sweeping staircases, large vestibules and huge halls. The house has three floors, the lower of which is filled with water (sea and fresh). In the halls are endless statues, some huge, others more life sized.

In the house lives Piranesi (although he isn’t sure that is his real name). He eeks out a life by fishing, eating seaweed and caring for the other “inhabitants” of the house. He also has an occasional visitor, a person Piranesi calls “The Other”. We can tell from very early on that all is not what it seems. The Other knows more than he is letting on and there are other strange events and encounters that cause Piranesi to question the world and his existence in it.

I really enjoyed the story, it was original and there was no way of knowing more than Piranesi because the story is written entirely from his point of view. There is a sweetness and naivety to the book, another world that is weird yet strangely endearing.

If you like a book to bamboozle you and to take you outside of the real world then this is a book for you.