Susanna Clarke

"Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house. There...

This fantasy series tells the alternative history of 19th-century England, where magic once existed and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange, who pit their skills against the might of Napoleon, the mythical Raven King and death i. The clash between these two British magicians is about to become a dangerous duel of the dark arts where, in the midst of the Napoleonic wars the real battle is between their oversized egos.