-
Piranesi
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $16.35
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.
-
-
Best Listen In a Long Time
- By Andrew on 12-30-04
By: Susanna Clarke
-
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Davina Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Susanna Clarke returns with an enchanting collection brimming with all the ingredients of good fairy tales: petulant princesses; vengeful owls; ladies who pass their time by embroidering terrible fates; endless paths in the deep, dark woods; and houses that never appear the same way twice.
-
-
21st century 19th century lit
- By M. Morgan on 04-06-07
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Circe
- By: Madeline Miller
- Narrated by: Perdita Weeks
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child - not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring, like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power - the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
-
-
Not worth the hype but still good
- By Yvonne den Besten on 06-21-19
By: Madeline Miller
-
The Night Circus
- By: Erin Morgenstern
- Narrated by: Jim Dale
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.
-
-
Some Magical, Some Not So Magical
- By Eugenia on 05-06-13
By: Erin Morgenstern
-
The Song of Achilles
- A Novel
- By: Madeline Miller
- Narrated by: Frazer Douglas
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia to be raised in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. “The best of all the Greeks”—strong, beautiful, and the child of a goddess—Achilles is everything the shamed Patroclus is not. Yet despite their differences, the boys become steadfast companions. Their bond deepens as they grow into young men and become skilled in the arts of war and medicine—much to the displeasure and the fury of Achilles’ mother, Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.
-
-
Wasn't Expecting to Like It- BOY! was I wrong!!
- By susan on 06-11-14
By: Madeline Miller
-
The Binding
- A Novel
- By: Bridget Collins
- Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. He is to begin an apprenticeship as a bookbinder - a vocation that arouses fear, superstition, and prejudice among their small community, but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse. For as long as he can recall, Emmett has been drawn to books, even though they are strictly forbidden. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born.
-
-
Just wow
- By RUKiddingMee on 05-18-19
By: Bridget Collins
-
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.
-
-
Best Listen In a Long Time
- By Andrew on 12-30-04
By: Susanna Clarke
-
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Davina Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Susanna Clarke returns with an enchanting collection brimming with all the ingredients of good fairy tales: petulant princesses; vengeful owls; ladies who pass their time by embroidering terrible fates; endless paths in the deep, dark woods; and houses that never appear the same way twice.
-
-
21st century 19th century lit
- By M. Morgan on 04-06-07
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Circe
- By: Madeline Miller
- Narrated by: Perdita Weeks
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child - not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring, like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power - the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
-
-
Not worth the hype but still good
- By Yvonne den Besten on 06-21-19
By: Madeline Miller
-
The Night Circus
- By: Erin Morgenstern
- Narrated by: Jim Dale
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.
-
-
Some Magical, Some Not So Magical
- By Eugenia on 05-06-13
By: Erin Morgenstern
-
The Song of Achilles
- A Novel
- By: Madeline Miller
- Narrated by: Frazer Douglas
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia to be raised in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. “The best of all the Greeks”—strong, beautiful, and the child of a goddess—Achilles is everything the shamed Patroclus is not. Yet despite their differences, the boys become steadfast companions. Their bond deepens as they grow into young men and become skilled in the arts of war and medicine—much to the displeasure and the fury of Achilles’ mother, Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.
-
-
Wasn't Expecting to Like It- BOY! was I wrong!!
- By susan on 06-11-14
By: Madeline Miller
-
The Binding
- A Novel
- By: Bridget Collins
- Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. He is to begin an apprenticeship as a bookbinder - a vocation that arouses fear, superstition, and prejudice among their small community, but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse. For as long as he can recall, Emmett has been drawn to books, even though they are strictly forbidden. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born.
-
-
Just wow
- By RUKiddingMee on 05-18-19
By: Bridget Collins
-
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
- By: V. E. Schwab
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
France, 1714: In a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever - and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
-
-
Prose style not to my liking
- By C.V. Cox on 10-18-20
By: V. E. Schwab
-
The Golem and the Jinni
- A Novel
- By: Helene Wecker
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.
-
-
What does it mean to be human?
- By Janice on 08-05-13
By: Helene Wecker
-
The Starless Sea
- A Novel
- By: Erin Morgenstern
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman, full cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues - a bee, a key, and a sword.
-
-
A Story in a Story About Stories
- By Reisodi on 12-17-19
By: Erin Morgenstern
-
Sea of Tranquility
- A Novel
- By: Emily St. John Mandel
- Narrated by: John Lee, Dylan Moore, Arthur Morey, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.
-
-
An excellent listen.
- By Mark on 04-11-22
-
Cloud Cuckoo Land
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Simon Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of 2021, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.
-
-
Academic Snobbery
- By TVR on 10-03-21
By: Anthony Doerr
-
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
- By: Alix E. Harrow
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place. Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure, and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world, and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.
-
-
Laborious story
- By Karen on 11-28-19
By: Alix E. Harrow
-
Ariadne
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Saint
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape.
-
-
We've been spoiled for choice
- By Stefan Filipovits on 05-04-21
By: Jennifer Saint
-
Once Upon a River
- By: Diane Setterfield
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A body always tells a story - but this child’s was a blank page. Rita reached for the lantern. She trained its light on the child’s face. "Who are you?" she murmured, but the face said as little as the rest of her. It was impossible to tell whether, in life, these blunt and unfinished features had borne the imprint of prettiness, timid watchfulness, or sly mischief. If there had once been curiosity or placidity or impatience here, life had not had time to etch it into permanence. Only a very short time ago, the body and soul of this little girl had still been securely attached.
-
-
Enjoyed thoroughly... one minor glitch
- By Jen817 on 12-27-18
-
Middlegame
- By: Seanan McGuire
- Narrated by: Amber Benson
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realize it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan.
-
-
Couldn't Finish
- By Amy Ferrantino on 05-22-19
By: Seanan McGuire
-
Ambergris
- City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
-
-
Entrancing “weird” novel
- By Anonymous on 12-04-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Black Sun
- By: Rebecca Roanhorse
- Narrated by: Cara Gee, Nicole Lewis, Kaipo Schwab, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial even proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger.
-
-
5-star Concept; Too Many Threads Left Hanging
- By Lisa Davidson on 10-26-20
Publisher's Summary
Bloomsbury presents Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Winner of the 2021 Audie Awards Audiobook of the Year.
Winner of the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction.
Shortlisted for The Costa Novel of The Year Award.
A Sunday Times and New York Times best seller.
Chosen as A Book of The Year by the Times, Guardian, Observer, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, I Paper, New Statesman, Spectator, Time Magazine, Times Literary Supplement, BBC Culture, Netgalley and the Church Times.
The spectacular new audiobook from the best-selling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, ‘one of our greatest living authors,’ New York Magazine.
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.
In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?
Lost texts must be found, secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.
The beauty of the House is immeasurable; its kindness infinite.
Critic Reviews
"What a world Susanna Clarke conjures into being.... Piranesi is an exquisite puzzle-box." (David Mitchell)
"It’s always great to have some fiction to heartily recommend, and while there’s been stiff competition this year, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke has won out in the end. A masterful work of weird fiction, it’s a novel that grips, perplexes and moves you, usually all at once!" (Observer, The Best Books of 2020)
"The fiction, nonfiction and poetry that deepened our understanding, ignited our curiosity and helped us escape.... For fantasy readers often eager to get lost in mystical worlds and escape the complications of real life, Piranesi’s predicament deeply resonates." (Time, Books of the Year)
Featured Article: The Best Audiobooks Under 7 Hours
Have some time to spare? All of the audiobooks on this list come in under seven hours, so they’re perfect for a single-session binge or a multi-day journey. While some may say the longer the book the better, we believe there is a lot of value in short audiobooks. Some of the best nonfiction is short and powerful, while short sci-fi stories and fantasy novels are just the thing when you want to escape the world but don't have time to get absorbed in a 30-hour tome. Time and attention spans are short these days, so we've got you covered with some of the best audiobooks under seven hours across multiple genres.
What listeners say about Piranesi
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Henry V
- 02-26-21
Fascinating Social Study
The book is a wonderful mashup of Plato, CS Lewis, and Borges. I completely agree with the rave reviews. Clarke has written a masterpiece.
And the reaction to it is a fascinating social study. Half the audible readers think the book is genius. The other half think it’s boring, predictable, nonsensical. One reviewer characterizes the book as a string of random scenes.
It makes me wonder, Are we all reading the same book?
No of course we aren’t. We each bring to it our own experiences. As with all books. But something special must be happening here for the reviews to be so polarized. I’d like to take a stab at an explanation.
Piranesi enthralled me because it brought up so many of my feelings around losing my worldview in my twenties. I can imagine that people who have not had to go through this experience will not be as amazed by how Clarke has conveyed it. She paints it precisely. She made me relive it.
Also, if you are not familiar with Plato and Lewis and Borges, you might not realize the ideas Clarke is playing with. You might be thinking about the Plot when she is thinking about the Meaning. It’s not a small thing for this author to add something fresh and exciting to a 3,000 year old conversation.
Finally, I loved the book because I loved the main character. His optimism, skepticism, precision, and earnestness totally won me over. I would have followed him on any adventure. But maybe you like your main characters to be powerful, in control, hardboiled. Maybe you did not feel what I felt, a love for his childlike goodness and sense of wonder. He made me feel acutely just how much I have lost by becoming modern, adult, and sophisticated. And that is the magic of the book.
116 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 09-17-20
Strange & Pointless
I read all the raving reviews so I went back & listened to it a 2nd time. I wanted more of “Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” , but this is nothing like that. The world created in this book is not magical, but just boring. The narration was great. I wanted to like it after reading the reviews, but it just isn’t for me.
45 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 02-02-21
Not for everyone, but exceptional
I cannot fault the negative reviews of this book or the disappointment some felt. They are right. Conversely, I agree with all of the glowing reviews and share that opinion. Why the dichotomy? The answer lies in the book. Some will see it as a disjointed tale of nothing as that is all their brain can make of it. Others can see the door Clarke painted, because it is one they have been searching for. I hope you can see it and walk through it. If you cannot, it is not your fault, nor are you wrong. This simply is not the medium you need to reopen the door within yourself. Perhaps it is too late, but I hope you do not stop searching.
37 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AMZ customer
- 09-16-20
Never heard a story like this one, but hoped to
I’ve been waiting for this story for so long, even though I had no idea what Susanna Clarke would craft next. But here she is, offering yet another world that is complex and eerie but beautiful and worthy of spending time in. Piranesi and his labyrinth will break your heart then put it back together again. ‘The beauty of the House is immeasurable; it’s kindness infinite.’
27 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Evan Holloway
- 10-06-20
Excellent narration of an excellent story.
Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a wondrous voice to Susanna Clarke's beautiful prose. The story is fantastical and moving, gentle and mysterious, and Mr. Ejiofor's pacing and character development add even more layers of complexity and wonder.
I will happily listen to this again and again.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Timothy
- 09-26-20
An instant classic
It has become increasingly rare to be able to experience a new classic just as it has been produced. Piranesi is one of those classics. Like the Eleanor Rigby, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Prince, Guernica or Gymnopédie, you are immediately aware from the first moment of contact that you are in the presence of something profound and lasting that is going to remain part of our collective awareness for many, many years to come.
Piranesi is a mysterious, touching wonderment, a poetic and visionary masterpiece. Reading it creates a dream world within that continues to unfold and resonate with your own dreams and questions long after you have put the book down. Susanna Clarke is a master wordsmith at the peak of her craft, leaving out all unnecessary descriptions and explanations, allowing the visions to stand for themselves and the questions to arise of their own accord and seek their own answers within your awareness. And ultimately it is a bittersweet celebration of the poignant beauty and mystery of simply being. The fact that she managed to create Piranesi while suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome makes the achievement all the more amazing.
Serendipitously, this exquisite poetic fable is here further enhanced by Chiwetel Ejiofor’s narration. His diction, presentation and emotion are all perfect. Once you have heard it, it would be impossible to imagine anyone else doing Piranesi justice. Both the book itself and this audiobook version of it are classics for the ages.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brody w.
- 09-16-20
Hauntingly Beautiful
I love this book. it was deep and beautiful and sad. I finished it in one day and this story will stay with me forever.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Geonn Cannon
- 09-16-20
Magnificent
A magical book, almost a fairy tale, with amazing writing enhanced by perfect narration. Relatively short but massive in its weight. I really loved this story.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 09-17-20
Random Scenes Strung Together
Do not both reading this book. The author has strung together random scenes and not bothered to create a story. It's a complete mess.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 11-12-20
Stilted and unfortunate
While well written, the story wasn't gripping. If you are looking for a sequel to Jonathan Livingston Seagull, then you're in luck
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- indigoblue
- 10-22-20
Slow grind, for me
Notwithstanding the sophistication attested to many listeners, I have to be honest and admit that I reached halfway without experiencing any spark of interest or emotional connection with the text. The story and I just did not gel, though it evidently turned on the lights for other listers/readers.
88 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Miko
- 09-19-20
Beautiful and Brilliant
Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi is compelling, clever, and couldn’t be a more fitting return for the the author who sixteen years ago brought us the brilliant Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
A modern allegoric tale that works beautifully on all its levels; I’ve never regretted my spoiler-free approach to reviews more, as I really want to discuss the allegory at the heart of this intriguing story. Simultaneously simple and complex, every piece seems to have its place both on the surface and below, the labyrinth setting layered and reflected in characters and themes.
As I say, it seems the perfect return for Clarke and it made me wonder, on top of the dominant metaphor, how much her own experience was was imbued into the foundation. She’d been so wildly successful with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, then became ill, leading to the long gap between novels. As someone who’s followed a similar (if more humble) path, I can’t help but feel this novel may be closer to the author’s heart and mind than perhaps any of us can know. But, this theory is another indicator of the brilliance of the book—it’s one of the stories that will probably mean something different to everyone, allowing readers to find in it pieces of themselves, their own rooms to explore within their own labyrinthine interior worlds.
It’s the first book I’ve heard narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor and I hope it won’t be the last—his voice is so easy to listen to and his intonation is lovely and subtle. Not all actors are fantastic narrators, but he definitely is. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
68 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Liz
- 09-16-20
Bewitching
Strange, beautiful and filled with the magical. We spend our time with the delightful creature Piranesi who lives an odd life in an even odder place. Gradually we learn his story and although it's signalled well in advance it is no less beautiful for that.
After a 17 year wait for a second book from Susanna Clarke it would be easy for it to be a disappointment. This most definitely is worth the wait. I found myself smiling often as I read, there is so much to enjoy here from the sublime writing to the gentle character of Piranesi himself and the odd and glittering world he inhabits.
I recently re-read Mister Norrel and Jonathan Strange and loved it again, though it is punishingly long and could definitely have been shorter and just as good. This is book is a short and delightful thing. Strongly recommend.
46 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Colin Consterdine
- 10-12-20
Dark but compelling
An exploration of altered states and Outsider concepts. Well crafted but may have complex impact on those with some mental illnesses.
31 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Michael Hirst
- 12-25-20
A big disappointment
Great narration couldn't overcome the listiness of this book, was greatly looking forward to it having just had the pleasure of listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but, original as the idea is it doesn't hold up, a handling that might have been bearable in a short story quickly becomes tedious.
26 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Pete D
- 09-24-20
Over long short story
What a disappointment. The start is really dragged out and so is the end. The early spoilers give away enough of the plot that intrigue doesn't last. The key scenes are great but then back to slow predictability for the wind up.
Not what I had hoped for...
26 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jennifer McGlade
- 09-18-20
Not for me
I wanted to love this book, but I found it tedious. The narration was spot on, but the storyline was lacking for me.
21 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- D. Tudor
- 04-09-21
Over-stretched one-track tale
Intriguing concept, excellent narration ... but a very slow starter and a one-track story arc that was overstretched and thin.
Yes, I get the internal v. external, reality v. mental allegories, but the concept could have been explored equally well (and more efficiently) in a short story.
I don't regret listening to 'Piranesi' but I'm afraid it didn't quite live up to some of its hyperbolic reviews.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Mum of wrestling fan
- 09-17-20
Breathtakingly beautiful
A wonderfully written story perfectly narrated. I could have listened forever. What an excellent follow-up to Strange and Norrell.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- V. O'Regan
- 12-27-20
Sheer perfection
This short lyrical novel is just perfect in its story, unique setting and the writing.
Impossible to summarise but sure to cement Clarke’s reputation. One of a kind
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Peter
- 12-19-20
Be patient
It took me while to begin to understand piranesi’s universe of halls, but once I started to I didn’t want to leave. The exquisite prose and narration make this a book that washes over you, like the tides.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 10-16-21
Beautiful and profound
I think the author is a once in a generation talent. This is such a rich work, worthy of being called a modern myth. This reading for audible is sensitive and beautifully paced.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Sarah
- 01-18-22
Unusual
Spectacular performance by Chiwetel, he really did brought the characters into life. What a masterpiece, thriller in disguise.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Robert
- 06-08-22
Great book, wonderfully read.
This is a fascinating story which is beautifully read by Ejiofor. It’s quite captivating. In a few segments conversations supposedly recorded in Piranesi’s notebooks don’t ring true as being written records, but I overlooked that. Highly recommended.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Michele
- 05-29-22
wow wow wow
Absolutely amazing. I take my hat off to the author. I could not put it down. What an amazing imagination sussana has. 10/10.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Robintrel
- 03-29-21
A jewel
I always intended to read Piranesi after reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but I let some time go by as I didn’t really believe it could live up to that wonderful experience. This book is quite different - it is short, its characters are few in number and its world is far less expansive. It is not a sequel to the earlier novel, except in so far as that book prepares you to accept the conceit of parallel worlds. You do not need to have read JS&MN first. Piranesi caught my imagination in the first few pages and held me throughout. This book is spare and clean like a highly polished faceted stone, and I found myself savouring the construction of its world just as much as the development of its narrative. It also made me care for its central character enough to weep for him. The reading is flawless, and I am glad that I experienced this as an audiobook.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 06-15-22
Transcendental
I cannot recommend Piranesi highly enough. Beautiful in its form and words, imaginative and otherworldly like Borges, and deeply moving.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Turing Complete
- 05-28-22
Dreamlike and unexpectedly beautiful
This story turned out to be an unexpected treasure. Simply wonderful storytelling — mysterious and engaging from start to finish.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 05-26-22
Fascinating
Hypnotic and captivating, it really caught my imagination. The gradual revealing of the heroes true situation was masterfully handled.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 05-25-22
Confusing
I could not get my head around this. I also kept falling asleep to the narrator