Published into the pandemic, this story of isolation took on an uncanny wider relevance – we were all confined to our own small worlds, and driven deeper into inner spaces. Perhaps that’s why a book so singular and surreal – perhaps, Clarke thought at first, just too peculiar – has connected so deeply with readers. Its roots are in a labyrinthine short story by Borges and the fantastical prison etchings of the 18th-century artist who gives the book its name, but also in the collective subconscious of dreams. Piranesi is a very different book: restrained, austere, written out of the long illness that plagued Clarke after the success of her debut. It’s what made readers fall in love with her 2004 debut, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an epic slice of rambunctious alternate history set in a Regency England tinged with magic. It’s difficult to describe Piranesi to a new reader, as you don’t want to deprive them of the sheer storytelling pleasure of being taken into another world – something Clarke shares with her fantasy influences CS Lewis, Diana Wynne Jones and Neil Gaiman.
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