Swimming in Darkness
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A thrilling graphic novel about a young man who is drawn to the thermal
springs found in the Swiss Alps that hold many mysteries.
Pierre is a young man at a crossroads. He drops out of architecture
school and decides to travel to Vals in the Swiss Alps, home to a
thermal springs complex located deep inside a mountain. The complex,
designed by architect Paul Zumthor, had been the subject of Pierre’s
thesis. The mountain holds many mysteries; it was said to have a mouth
that periodically swallowed people up. Pierre, sketchbook in hand, is
drawn to the enigmatic powers of the mountain and its springs, and
attempts to uncover the truth behind them in the secret rooms he
discovers deep within the complex. But he finds his match in a man named
Valeret who is similarly obsessed, and who’d like nothing more than to
eliminate his competitor.
Gorgeously illustrated, Swimming in Darkness is an intriguing, noirish graphic novel about uncovering the powerful secrets of the natural world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harari melds academia, obsession, and mysticism in this eerie graphic novel about a young man traveling through a mysterious network of mountainside baths. Pierre, a French grad student who dropped out of school after a mental breakdown, decides to confront the object of his obsessive thesis: the Vals Thermal Baths in Switzerland. Along the way, he learns there's a legend that "every hundred years, the mountain chooses a foreigner, lures him into its mouth, and swallows him up." Pierre encounters a rival who will stop at nothing to gain the bath's secrets, a woman also fascinated by their maze, and an eccentric hermit who tells him the legend is true. Harari works in a clear line with a sickly pastel palette, and his attention to architectural detail is crucial in establishing the strange, sinister mood. Disappearing doors, murder attempts, and unexpected romance all lead Pierre to his inevitable destiny with the mountain. This is a stylish, atmospheric book whose deliberate pacing deliciously builds tension and mystery.
