Piranesi

It is incredibly rare — and hence all the more fulfilling — to encounter a truly original work of fiction. Piranesi is an example of this, utterly immersive, at times like a set of Russian dolls or stories within stories. David Mitchell (especially The Bone Clocks) would be an obvious influence, but I found elements of Emma Donoghue's Room and also authors as diverse as C.S. Lewis/Tolkien on one hand and Defoe/Swift on the other. At the heart of Piranesi is the question of the extent to which it is necessary to embrace reason. There is the ordered world, but yet also potentially a simultaneous world of fantasy and imagination. Piranesi combines fairy tale with detective story, the fabulous with the mundane. Clarke demonstrates time and again how it is possible both to lose and find oneself regularly. A simpler, less complicated existence to the one in which we live may logically have an appeal for many. Piranesi also has immense relevance in the age of the pandemic, not just literary escapism, but the comfort of small things in the absence of others. A worthy top ten of 2022 candidate, even as book number one of the year: ten out of ten.

By Susanna Clarke