Swimming in the Dark

A major literary debut set in Communist Poland about the forbidden love between two young men on opposite sides of the political divide
You were right when you said that people can't always give us what we want from them. Poland, 1980. Anxious, disillusioned Ludwik Glowacki, soon to graduate university, has been sent along with the rest of his class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and together, they spend a dreamlike summer swimming in secluded lakes, reading forbidden books - and falling in love. But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw, and to the harsh realities of life under the Party. Exiled from paradise, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive; and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart. Swimming in the Dark is an unforgettable debut about youth, love, and loss - and the sacrifices we make to live lives with meaning.

Review
Marvellous, precise, poignant writing; the reader is happy to be overwhelmed. The highest talent at work -- SEBASTIAN BARRYAn enthralling debut -- TASH AW ― TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTA remarkable, beautiful tale ... Utterly new and entirely credible ... This book radiates sensuality, humour, and human truths . Swimming in the Dark is sensual and immersive, and Ludwik's sentimental education is so well described that the reader is left wanting more. You won't want to miss it ― LITERARY REVIEWElegant, compelling and full of melancholy beauty ... I will keep it on my shelves alongside novels by Alan Hollinghurst, Edmund White and other classics in the gay canon ― EVENING STANDARDOne of the most astonishing contemporary gay novels we have ever read . extraordinarily beautiful, enrapturing and poignant . Erotic, mesmeric, heart-rending and brutal, this is a masterpiece ― ATTITUDEA young Polish author who writes rather miraculously in English, of which he has magisterial and frankly, Conradian command ― Guardian, Books of the YearNew Year, New Writers . Swimming in the Dark is an unforgettable debut about youth, love, and loss - and the sacrifices we make to live lives with meaning -- Foyles.co.ukBeautifully judged, very moving, passionate ... I was completely gripped -- PATRICIA DUNCKERCaptivating both for its shimmering surfaces and its terrifying under-deep. I began reading, and soon realized I wouldn't be doing anything else that day. I needed to see these boys, these lovers, through to the end. Tomasz Jedrowski is a remarkable writer, alive to the ramifications of history and politics, in which the violence of a corrupt state can never fully stamp out the flourishing of beauty, grace and resistance -- JUSTIN TORRES, bestselling author of We the AnimalsThe surprise of Swimming in the Dark lies in its intimate ambivalence - that it captures the pleasures of everyday life behind the Iron Curtain as well as the privations. A beautiful, captivating love story that deepened my understanding of life in communist era Poland -- Jessica Shattuck, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle

About the Author
Tomasz Jedrowski was born in West Germany to Polish parents and studied law at Cambridge and the Université de Paris. He speaks five languages and currently lives in France. Swimming in the Dark is his first novel.