PIRANESI

SHORTLITED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARD 202000Piranesi lives in the House. 0Perhaps he always has.0In 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.0On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food and waterlilies to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.0Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and0what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?0Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.0The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite0'A book to look out for in 2020' - Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times, Express, SFX0'Piranesi astonished me. It is a miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling, at once a gripping mystery, an adventure through a brilliant new fantasy world, and a deep meditation on the human condition: feeling lost, and being found. I already want to be back in its haunting and beautiful halls!' MADELINE MILLER0'What a world Susanna Clarke conjures into being, what a tick-tock-tick-tock of reveals, what a pure protagonist, what a morally squalid supporting cast, what beauty, tension and restraint, and what a pitch-perfect ending. Piranesi is an exquisite puzzle-box far, far bigger on the inside than it is on the outside' DAVID MITCHELL0'Piranesi is a gorgeous, spellbinding mystery that gently unravels page by page. Precisely the sort of book that I love wordlessly handing to someone so they can have the pleasure of uncovering its secrets for themselves. This book is a treasure, washed up upon a forgotten shore, waiting to be discovered' ERIN MORGENSTERN.