Piranesi is the best kind of fantasy novel

Magic doesn’t exist, and yet it has captivated us for centuries, reaching across countries and cultures. There’s a whole genre of fiction devoted to it: fantasy works featuring child wizards, enchanted blades, and dragon queens, aiming to thrill and delight readers with larger-than-life characters, threats, and escapades.

Many fantasy books flow out of the mind as easily as they flow into it. Their plots often feel too convenient to resonate with our lives. Their characters rarely challenge our ways of thinking or feeling. Their worlds feel so distant and disconnected from our own that once we close the books, they no longer echo.

Piranesi is not one of these hollow tales. Instead, it is the best type of fantasy. It doesn’t just allow us to explore a magical world; it weaves magic into its readers’ lives. In these beautifully written pages, Susanna Clarke transforms the way we see our world and ourselves.