A quarantine recommendation
In Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, a man lives in a house he believes is the world. To be fair, the house is massive, perhaps infinite, and it contains the sea, clouds, and many species of birds. Its towering walls are covered with statues representing nearly everything real and imagined. Two people live in the house, the man and the Other, and 15 skeletons also reside there. These are all the people who have ever lived, as far as the man can tell. The Other calls the man Piranesi, but he is pretty sure that’s not actually his name—if he could only remember it.
As perfect as Exit West was for the surreal, destabilizing beginning of quarantine, Piranesi is for month eight of our circumscribed lives. Plot-wise, it has the satisfying slow reveals of fantasy and mystery, but mood-wise it’s about being observant, attentive, grateful, and also more than a little lost and crazy. It’s probably no coincidence that Clarke has an undiagnosed chronic disease that kept her housebound for many years, a subject explored in this interesting profile. It’s the kind of book that made me want to throw it across the room in a fury that I will never be able to write anything so incisive and engaging.
I’m keeping this short because I have the first deadline for my book tomorrow, and I don’t have many more words left in me right now. (Let’s just say I am very glad that I’ll never have to write the first draft of the first chapter of my first book ever again.) But I promise you won’t regret picking up this jewel of a novel, especially not right not, during this most tedious and fascinating time in all our lives.