Author photo: Patrick Nielsen Hayden (CC BY 2.0)

THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Sixteen years after giving us the greatest extensively-footnoted alternate history comedy of manners about dueling magicians (featuring fairies) ever, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell author Susanna Clarke will publish her second novel, Piranesi.

Piransi is scheduled for publication with Bloomsbury in September 2020. Here’s the full synopsis, according to The Bookseller:

“Piranesi has always lived in the House. It has hundreds if not thousands of rooms and corridors, imprisoning an ocean. A watery labyrinth. Once in a while he sees his friend, The Other, who needs Piranesi for his scientific research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. Piranesi records his findings in his journal. Then messages begin to appear; all is not what it seems. A terrible truth unravels as evidence emerges of another person and perhaps even another world outside the House’s walls.”

Are you excited?!? Because we’re so excited we can barely finish this post. Her agent Jonny Geller called it a “perfectly constructed novel,” and Bloomsbury EIC Alexandra Pringle says it equals Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in “wit, strangeness and sorrow.”

But wait! It gets even better. Here’s the kicker:

There’s another Susanna Clarke novel coming out after that. There are no details yet on the second novel, but we’re definitely keeping an eye out for further updates.