Where to Start with Susanna Clarke
Susanna Clarke has published only two novels and a short story collection, and that small body of work has made her one of the most celebrated fantasy writers alive. Her debut, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), reimagined English magic as a branch of scholarship with the depth and detail of a genuine historical tradition. Her second novel, Piranesi (2020), created an entire world in 272 pages. Both books share Clarke’s gift for making the impossible feel not just plausible but inevitable, as though magic has always been part of the furniture and we simply forgot to notice it.
Start here
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke · 272 pages · 2020 · Easy
Themes: memory, wonder, isolation, labyrinth, identity
A man lives in a house of infinite halls, where ocean tides sweep through the lower levels and clouds gather in the upper ones. Thousands of statues line the walls. He calls himself Piranesi and keeps careful journals of everything he observes. Twice a week he meets the only other living person he knows. He does not remember arriving. He does not question why he is there. Then small inconsistencies in his journals begin to suggest that something is very wrong.
Why Start Here
Piranesi is shorter, more focused, and more immediately rewarding than Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Clarke’s 800-page debut. It showcases everything that makes her extraordinary: the precision of her prose, her ability to make impossible spaces feel architecturally real, and her gift for creating characters whose innocence is both moving and unsettling.
The novel won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021. It works beautifully as a standalone mystery and as a meditation on memory, kindness, and what it means to truly see the world around you. If you love it, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell awaits as a much longer, richer exploration of Clarke’s vision. But Piranesi is the perfect first taste.
What to Expect
A short, luminous novel told through journal entries. The mystery unfolds gradually and satisfyingly. The tone is gentle and wonder-filled, which makes the darker revelations all the more affecting. Can be read in an afternoon. One of those books that changes the way light looks when you put it down.