Swimming in Darkness
Swimming in Darkness
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By Lucas Harari, translated by David Homel. Published Arsenal Pulp Press.
Hardcover, 152 pages, Colour, 2019.
An NPR Best Book of the Year
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 Peter 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.
Reviews
This noirish modern of mysterious architectures, strange geometries and people drowning in obsession is eerily unsettling and completely mesmerising. -Warren Ellis
Swimming in Darkness is a beautifully rendered mystery. Its pages teem with secret passages, showing us that Earth has an architecture beyond our recognition. -Samuel Sattin, author of Legend
Much like the mountain in Swimming In Darkness, Harari's intricate, puzzle-like grid will pull you in, and swallow you whole. -Elsa Charretier, author of November Vol. 1
Swiss architect Peter Zumthor's work on the Therme Vals - a hotel and spa built over the only thermal springs in the Graubunden Canton in Switzerland - is intentionally overwhelming. It's built into a mountain and devoid of clocks, so that visitors surrender entirely to the experience. There is, however, a myth that the mountain has been known to swallow people whole from time to time. The new graphic novel Swimming in Darkness lives in the space between those two facts. -Hollywood Reporter
Beautifully rendered, this should appeal to discerning readers who favor the artwork as much as the story in graphic novels. -Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)
Harari's tale is pulpy noir by way of Hitchcock, with a strong, Lynchian hint of the uncanny. -NPR's Best Books of the Year list
A compelling mystery/suspense thriller that will keep audiences riveted. Imagine a stylish and brooding psychological thriller without a corpse, and youâll get the gorgeously drawn Swimming in Darkness . .. Cinematically stylish, Swimming in Darkness has quite a steady hand when it comes to suspense and mystery. You will be completely engrossed by this reading experience. -Villain Media
Praise for this book cannot be overstated . .. From the opening pages, Swimming in Darkness grabs the reader and refuses to let go, creeping slowly through an uncanny realm where fiction and reality dance together in a haunting and unforgettable waltz. -Comic Watch
Harari incorporates local legend with the history of architecture, particularly the idea of secret rooms, and wraps these all around Zumthor's conundrum of a structure and the stylistic forms of noir . .. Compelling. -Comics Beat
Harari melds academia, obsession, and mysticism in this eerie graphic novel . .. This is a stylish, atmospheric book whose deliberate pacing deliciously builds tension and mystery. -Publishers Weekly
