After a book recommendation, I decided to check out the book ‘Piranesi’. The unique book cover drew me in. The first 50 pages were slow and I felt the story was going nowhere. But I stuck with it and the experience was rewarding.
The protagonist (Piranesi) lives in a strange ‘world’. His world is made of humongous and endless halls and is situated on an island. These halls stretch endlessly, facing the sea from every angle, and are adorned with enigmatic statues — some resting on the floors while others come jutting out from the walls and ceilings.
Each hall is a unique landscape, distinct from the next. One is filled with deep ponds with lilies growing on the surface. Another one is submerged, with shallow, clear waters, while several others are lined with statues, hundreds of them, in tiers, rising to distant heights.
Lost in time and space, Piranesi roams these endless, deserted halls, spending his days fishing and gathering dried seaweed to sustain himself. Our comprehension of the vastness of this queer world is constrained by Piranesi’s own discoveries within it.
“I am determined to explore as much of the World as I can in my lifetime. To this end I have travelled as far as the Nine-Hundred-and-Sixtieth Hall to the West, the Eight-Hundred-and-Ninetieth Hall to the North and the Seven-Hundred-and-Sixty-Eighth Hall to the South.”
Piranesi has no recollection of his past and or how he came to inhabit this labyrinth-like world. But he can effortlessly recount the distinctiveness of each hall, without blinking. The placement of each statue is etched into his memory as he holds them delicately at his fingertips. He can even forecast the cycle of tides and stay safe from the floods that awash the lower halls.
He harbors a strange reverence for the world and despite having no company, he is content in the obliviousness to any other kind of existence. Yet, he finds joy in the presence of visitors, even if they are merely birds, welcoming their company with happiness.
Besides Piranesi, there is only one living person who inhabits this world, whom Piranesi refers to as the ‘Other’. The Other is moody and his visits to the world are sporadic. Where does ‘Other’ come from? Piranesi doesn’t question.
What triggers Piranesi to fundamentally shift his perception of the world? What makes him question his origins in this strange world? Who exactly is the ‘other’? Does Piranesi ever find a way out into a more conventional world? If he does, would he want to depart or stay back?
The narrative evokes a labyrinth within oneself — a sanctuary of personal solace and escape. So compelling is this refuge that the lines blur between reality and illusion. Can one yearn more intensely for the unreal than the tangible reality? Is the version of oneself within the unreal realm more genuine?
As the layers peel off one by one, you get immersed in a tale of intrigue, betrayal, exploitation, solitude and longing.
The world-building is rich, captivating, and aesthetically pleasing. But you may get disoriented by the abundant details of the numbered locations. An atlas provided at the outset could have been beneficial in orienting the reader within the world. But, don’t let this distract you from what you are going discover as you navigate deeper into this genre-bending book.