Piranesi

I enjoyed Susanna Clarke's earlier massive and award-winning tome, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and so I wanted to read this well-reviewed newer book; this was my 2nd try and I did finish it. It is difficult to describe and the cruelty of The Other character is distressing. Piranesi himself is charming and engaging, if clearly naive/deluded. Here is the plot summary from the book jacket.

"Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house. There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known." 

As mentioned, reviews are uniformly positive.  From Library Journal: "Clarke's ... deftly written new novel is the diary of the main character...Clarke creates an immersive world that readers can almost believe exists." Booklist concludes their review with "in this spellbinding, occult puzzle of a fable, one begins to wonder if perhaps the reverence, kindness, and gratitude practiced by Clarke's enchanting and resilient hero aren't all the wisdom one truly needs."  Kirkus offers these closing remarks: "At the foundation of this story is an idea at least as old as Chaucer: Our world was once filled with magic, but the magic has drained away. Clarke imagines where all that magic goes when it leaves our world and what it would be like to be trapped in that place. Piranesi is a naif, and there’s much that readers understand before he does. But readers who accompany him as he learns to understand himself will see magic returning to our world. Weird and haunting and excellent."

And here are details offered in Publishers Weekly review. "Clarke wraps a twisty mystery inside a metaphysical fantasy in her extraordinary new novel... The story unfolds as journal entries written by the eponymous narrator, who, along with an enigmatic master known as the Other...inhabits the House, a vast, labyrinthine structure of statue-adorned halls and vestibules. So immense is the House that its many parts support their own internal climates, all of which Piranesi vividly describes... Meanwhile, the Other is pursuing the “Great and Secret Knowledge” of the ancients. After the Other worriedly asks Piranesi if he’s seen in the house a person they refer to as 16, Piranesi’s curiosity is piqued, and all the more so after the Other instructs him to hide. In their discussions about 16, it becomes increasingly clear the Other is gaslighting Piranesi about his memory, their relationship, and the reality they share. With great subtlety, Clarke gradually elaborates an explanatory backstory to her tale’s events and reveals sinister occult machinations that build to a crescendo of genuine horror. This superbly told tale is sure to be recognized as one of the year’s most inventive novels."