Books like Piranesi
What should you read after Susanna Clarke’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Susanna Clarke
- 2020
- 272 pages
- Fantasy
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Piranesi
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchThe Starless Sea
Erin Morgenstern
Another underground world of doors, statues and honeyed rooms, discovered through fragments and old books. Morgenstern wants exactly the same feeling, at twice the length.
- The House itself
- A mystery told in journals
- Solitude and awe
- Twice as long, and it wanders
Great matchAnnihilation
Jeff VanderMeer
A biologist keeps a field journal inside a zone that refuses to obey the rules, and VanderMeer reaches the same awe with a great deal more dread underneath.
- A mystery told in journals
- Solitude and awe
- Short and strange
- Dread rather than wonder
- The WallBest for solitude and awe
The Wall
Marlen Haushofer
A woman wakes to find an invisible wall around her Alpine valley and writes it all down — solitude turned into a life, and the notebook is the novel.
- Solitude and awe
- A mystery told in journals
- The House itself
- No answers are ever given
Best for a kind, innocent narratorKlara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
Klara narrates with the same generous, careful attention and the same holes in her understanding — a mind you trust completely and probably shouldn't.
- A kind, innocent narrator
- Short and strange
- Wonder instead of horror
- Near-future realism, no magic
- Jonathan Strange & Mr NorrellGreat match
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
Clarke's other novel, in a completely different mood: two magicians reviving English magic, told with footnotes, enormous patience and a very dry wit.
- Wonder instead of horror
- The House itself
- A mystery told in journals
- 800 pages, deliberately slow
Worth a look — with a warningHouse of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski
The other novel about a house larger inside than out, assembled entirely from documents and footnotes. It is the horror version, and it will not be kind.
- The House itself
- A mystery told in journals
- Wonder instead of horror
- Horror, not wonder
What should you read after Piranesi?
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern — another underground world of doors, statues and honeyed rooms, discovered through fragments and old books. Morgenstern wants exactly the same feeling, at twice the length.
If what stayed with you was a mystery told in journals, read Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer instead: a biologist keeps a field journal inside a zone that refuses to obey the rules, and VanderMeer reaches the same awe with a great deal more dread underneath. The Wall by Marlen Haushofer is the other strong option — a woman wakes to find an invisible wall around her Alpine valley and writes it all down — solitude turned into a life, and the notebook is the novel.
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