Sandcastle

Description

It's a perfect beach day, or so thought the family, young couple, a few tourists, and a refugee who all end up in the same secluded, idyllic cove filled with rock pools and sandy shore, encircled by green, densely vegetated cliffs. But this utopia hides a dark secret. First there is the dead body of a woman found floating in the crystal-clear water. Then there is the odd fact that all the children are aging rapidly. Soon everybody is growing older-every half hour-and there doesn't seem to be any way out of the cove. Levy's dramatic storytelling works seamlessly with Peeters's sinister art to create a profoundly disturbing and fantastical mystery. Praise for Sandcastle: "Begins like a murder mystery, continues like an episode of The Twilight Zone, and finishes with a kind of existentialism that wouldn't be out of place in a Von Trier film." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "Sandcastle is a fast 112-page read you won't be able to put down." -Cleveland.com "Peeters and Levy convey some profound, if profoundly unsubtle, truths about the human condition. Weighty stuff, expertly told." -The Comics Bulletin

Pierre Oscar Levy is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. He lives in France. Frederik Peeters's previous graphic novels have received multiple nominations for top awards at the Angouleme International Comics Festival. He lives in Switzerland.

"It's based on this graphic novel that I was given from my daughters," he said. "I read it, and the premise was so powerful, of these people that went to this beach and their experience that happens on that day in the beach... I thought it was very frightening and emotional, and the ideas just started coming, and I tracked down the owner, and the person that wrote it. It was just a beautiful thing, and kind of touching, that it came from my daughters, this story about getting older very, very quick."--M. Night Shyamalan "Entertainment Weekly" "A tight, taut tale."-- "Forbidden Planet International blog review" "Begins like a murder mystery, continues like an episode of The Twilight Zone, and finishes with a kind of existentialism that wouldn't be out of place in a Von Trier film."--Publishers Weekly "starred review" "It's an obscure graphic novel. This book gave me the opportunity to work through things like my parents' getting older..."--M. Night Shyamalan "The New York Times" "Shyamalan adapted his disquieting tale from the graphic novel "Sandcastle," by the French writer Pierre Oscar Levy and the Swiss illustrator Frederik Peeters. As is frequently the case with French-produced bandes dessinees, "Sandcastle" is a stark existentialist parable."--New York Times-- "New York Times" (7/27/2021 12:00:00 AM) "Sandcastle truly inspired my film Old. It is a profound mystery, sci-fi graphic novel that is illustrated so beautifully and with such humanity. Its themes of aging had me thinking about my parents and children and how quickly it all goes by. From the moment I read this I was changed." --M. Night Shyamalan