Piranesi

 Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 245 pages.

Our protagonist lives in The House, which is endless and provides all he needs. He has in all his life never reached the end of it's labyrinthine halls filled with unique statues, and indeed has no reason to believe it ever ends. The lower halls are a great ocean whose tides he tracks carefully, and whose fish and seaweed feed him and fuel his fire. The upper halls are full of clouds which provide fresh water. There have been at least fifteen people in the history of the world, 13 dead and 2 living. The other living person he calls "The Other." The Other is in search of a great secret knowledge that our protagonist (who he calls Piranesi, despite the fact that he is pretty sure that is not his name) goes far into the halls to help him research. But soon Piranesi begins seeing strange things, and remembering strange things, that cause him to begin to question all of the things he thought he knew about his little world. 

I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this book. On the one hand there are many things in it that don't make a lot of sense. Our protagonist is alternately presented as extremely intelligent and scientifically minded, while also essentially never asking what feel like very obvious questions or drawing very obvious conclusions, which is both frustrating and pretty hard to believe. On the other hand this book is extremely richly atmospheric, the prose is lovely, and the setting is deeply intriguing. The House actually reminds me quite a lot of the setting of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, which is one of my favorite books and which I've had a very hard time finding anything that even remotely matches. There are definitely frustrating elements of this book, but ultimately it is very short and definitely worth the read.