![]() “It will be an honour to open the doors to the House, and show its beauty to the world. “But when I followed Piranesi into his watery Halls, I discovered Susanna’s wit, strangeness and sorrow made new and beautiful in ways I could not have imagined,” she said. “Susanna hinted she may be writing again after such a long hiatus, but I never really believed a fully imagined world, a perfectly constructed novel, would just be sitting there,” said Geller.Ĭlarke’s UK editor, Alexandra Pringle, said that she had thought that Jonathan Strange, which “appeared from the ether like an apparition … couldn’t be equalled”. Since then, the British author has published only a collection of short stories set in the same universe, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, telling interviewers that persistent ill-health had slowed her down.Ĭlarke’s agent, Jonny Geller, said that there are “a few moments in an agent’s life when something so unexpected and so wonderful pops up in your inbox, you can’t quite believe it”. Published in 2004, it took the world by storm, selling more than 4m copies, winning prizes including the Hugo and World Fantasy awards, and was adapted by the BBC in 2015. Running to more than 1,000 pages, it is set in an alternative version of 19th-century England, where magic has almost – but not quite – faded into the past. Each step forward is a step nearer to finishing.Clarke’s debut, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, took her more than 10 years to write. I meet and talk to an awful lot of people who write, or wish to write, but if I could just give them one piece of advice it is to “keep going” – now that could mean a few sentences on a lunch-break, or those lucky few who have the ability to write hundreds, if not thousands of words a day. It was terrifying from my point of view to read this. It has taken her this long to build new techniques and methods to find the capacity to write again, and I find it hugely admirable how she has managed to find a way to cope with her illness. Greenland sent the story to the author Neil Gaiman, a friend. ![]() It’s hard to appreciate how much of an achievement it has been for her to write a book at all – in these interviews, she explains how she has suffered from a mysterious and debilitating illness that robbed her of energy, and left her previous capacity for work in ruins. In support of PIRANESI, Clarke has undertaken a few interviews to promote the book which shed light on why it has taken fifteen years to publish. The articles I’ve read about it are deliberately vague regarding the plot, but, regardless, I am still excited to read it. ![]() Alexander Adams, Alexander Adams Art Piranesi. The world is so wonderfully created that there must have been a temptation to continue telling stories in that setting, but, from what I gather, PIRANESI stands separate. This will be a valuable book for students of Piranesi, book arts and patronage in Eighteenth-Century Rome. Clarke creates this world in exquisite detail, using footnotes and asides to give real depth to the story she is telling, with a real feeling of authenticity, especially to anyone who has ever took even the most passing interest in those shaggy dog stories that England is so rich in. ![]() Clarke's ambitious second novel, winner of the 2021 Women's Prize, was 16 years in the making. I loved JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL – it’s a wonderful, mesmerising book, that creates a rich and plausible world, where “our” history has been nudged ever-so-slightly sideways, and Regency England is resident to magicians and magic, and plagued by capricious fairies and strange but very real folklore. Piranesi by Susanna Clark review: a head-spinning follow-up to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. To find that her new book, PIRANESI, has been released, certainly came as a shock, but a very welcome one. Released with a relatively short build-up (I only found out that a book was due maybe six or seven weeks ago), it has come as a wonderful surprise, and a book I will certainly look forward to reading.Ĭlarke released her first book proper, JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL, a surprisingly long time ago now – some fifteen years or so, and then, after the excitement that that book caused, she retreated from the public eye. Amongst the flurry of books released in September, I note with interest a new book from Susanna Clarke.
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