Shortly after its publication, Clarke became ill with what was later diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome. Piranesi is Clarke's second novel, following her debut Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), which sold 4 million copies worldwide and was adapted into a BBC miniseries of the same name in 2015. He reflects that he is no longer quite Sorensen or Piranesi, but must construct a third identity from the remnants of the other two. The narrator brings James Ritter back to visit the House, tends to Ketterley's body, and joins Raphael when she visits the House. In an epilogue, the narrator has adjusted to living in his home world, but often returns to the House. After long deliberation, he elects to leave the House. She asks Piranesi to return to his home world, where his family have, for six years since he disappeared from London, wondered what happened to him. After the water recedes, Raphael explains that she is a British police detective investigating disappearances related to the Arne-Sayles cult. Ketterley tries to kill them both, but drowns in the floodwaters. On the day of the flood, Piranesi confronts Ketterley with his reclaimed memories just as Raphael returns to find him. When Sorensen went to interview Ketterley, Ketterley used a ritual to imprison him in the House, where he slowly lost his memory and constructed a new identity which Ketterley mockingly named Piranesi. Piranesi pieces the destroyed pages back together from scraps he finds in gull nests, and learns the true story of how he came to the House: he was Matthew Rose Sorensen, a journalist writing a book about Arne-Sayles. After learning that a rare confluence of tides will soon flood the middle level of the House, Piranesi leaves a warning for 16, and discovers a message from her asking "Are you Matthew Rose Sorensen?" Reading the name gives Piranesi a vision of standing in a modern city.įurther research in Piranesi's journals reveals that someone has destroyed all entries relating to Ketterley. Piranesi avoids reading 16's reply, but interactions with the Other reveal that she is a woman named Raphael. Piranesi discovers that 16 has entered the House, and leaves a message. Ritter later described being held captive in a place resembling the House. Arne-Sayles fostered a cult-like mentality among his followers and was eventually imprisoned for kidnapping a man named James Ritter. The entries tell the story of an occultist from the modern world named Laurence Arne-Sayles who posited that other worlds existed and could be accessed Ketterley was one of his students. While indexing his journals, Piranesi discovers references to entries he doesn't remember writing which include terms mentioned by the Prophet. He declares he will lead 16 to the House in order to hurt Ketterley. The Prophet claims that the House is a "distributary world", formed by ideas flowing out of another world. Piranesi meets an elderly stranger he calls the Prophet, who identifies the Other as Ketterley, a rival who stole his ideas about the Knowledge. The Other warns Piranesi that a sixteenth person, whom both call "16," may enter the House to do him harm, and that he must not approach 16 under any circumstances or he will lose his sanity. When Piranesi suggests that they abandon the quest for the Great and Secret Knowledge, the Other says they have had this conversation before, and warns Piranesi that the House slowly erodes one's memories and personality. The Other occasionally brings Piranesi supplies that seem to originate from outside the House, such as shoes, electric torches, and multivitamins. Twice a week, Piranesi meets with the Other, a well-dressed man who enlists his help to search for a "Great and Secret Knowledge" hidden somewhere in the House. Piranesi records every day in his journals, the text of which makes up the novel. He believes he has always lived in the House, and that there are only fifteen people in the world, most of whom are long-dead skeletons. The upper level of the House is filled with clouds, and the lower level with an ocean, which occasionally surges into the middle level following tidal patterns that Piranesi meticulously tracks. Piranesi lives in a place called the House, a world composed of infinite halls and vestibules lined with statues, no two of which are alike.
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