Swimming in the Dark: A Novel

by Tomasz Jedrowski

Overview

Named A Best Book of 2020 by NPR! 

“Imagine Call Me By Your Name set in Communist Poland and you'll get a sense of Jedrowski's moving debut about a consuming love affair amidst a country being torn apart.”  — O, The Oprah Magazine

“Captivating both for its shimmering surfaces and its terrifying depths. Tomasz Jedrowski is a remarkable writer.”  — Justin Torres, bestselling author of We the Animals

Set in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of Communism, a tender and passionate story of first love between two young men who eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide—a stunningly poetic and heartrending literary debut for fans of André Aciman, Garth Greenwell, and Alan Hollinghurst.

When university student Ludwik meets Janusz at a summer agricultural camp, he is fascinated yet wary of this hand­some, carefree stranger. But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are ful­filled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful, natural world removed from society and its con­straints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive Communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.

Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly coveted government position. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.

Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart, Swimming in the Dark is a potent blend of romance, postwar politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski’s indelible and thought-provoking literary debut explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062890009
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/28/2020
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	66,677
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tomasz Jedrowski is a graduate of Cambridge University and the Université de Paris. Born in Germany to Polish parents, he has lived in several countries, including Poland, and currently resides outside Paris. This is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/03/2020

Jedrowski’s dazzling debut charts an evocative sexual awakening and coming of age amid political unease in early 1980s Poland. At a summer work camp in 1980, 22-year-old Ludwik Głowacki meets the broad-shouldered Janusz, with whom he discusses the repression and loneliness of gay men in their society. In second-person narration addressed to his new friend and lover, Ludwik reflects on furtive childhood desires (“Years of yearning compressed like a muscle, pulsating mercilessly”) and describes their secret savoring of a banned James Baldwin book. Despite their ease of connection, Ludwik and Janusz are on opposite sides of a political divide: Janusz is happy to work within the system and gets a government job deciding which books should be published, which Ludwik—who has to carefully craft a literary doctoral thesis that won’t go against the party line—sees as censorship. Additionally, Janusz’s sexual relationship with a wealthy young woman named Hania, which he carries on in hopes of benefiting from her father’s political connections, creates conflict between the two men. Readers will relish the indelible prose, which approaches the mastery of Alan Hollinghurst. Jedrowski’s portrayal of Poland’s tumultuous political transformation over several decades makes this a provocative, eye-opening exploration of the costs of defying as well as complying with social and political conventions. (Apr.)Correction: An earlier version of this review misspelled the author's last name.

Publishers Weekly

[A] devastating debut novel . . . Worker revolts and brutal government crackdown form the backdrop to Ludwik’s search for love and possibility while living in fear of being discovered. Jedrowski’s prose captures the strain of such desires, alongside heady moments of freedom.

Interview Magazine

One of the most astonishing contemporary gay novels we have ever read. Swimming in the Dark is extraordinarily beautiful . . . Erotic, mesmeric, heart-rending and brutal, this is a masterpiece.

Attitude magazine (UK)

Jedrowski has woven a brilliant tale about two people in love who are torn apart by a political divide and a difference in values. . . . A tender, sad, and moving love story . . . full of suspenseful intrigue, conflict, and passion.

The Gay & Lesbian Review

An affecting and unusual romance, with a political undercurrent . . . . Jedrowski writes elegantly and evokes the emotional honesty that the lovers first thrive in, and then the grimly repressive machinery of the [Polish United Workers' Party].

The Guardian

"Marvelous, precise, poignant writing; the reader is happy to be overwhelmed. The highest talent at work."

Sebastian Barry

A remarkable, beautiful tale . . . [that] is consonant with many of the traditions of gay fiction, yet is also utterly new and entirely credible . . . This book radiates sensuality, humour, and human truths . . . The reader is left wanting more. You won’t want to miss it.” 

Literary Review (UK)

Jedrowski has woven a brilliant tale about two people in love who are torn apart by a political divide and a difference in values. . . . A tender, sad, and moving love story . . . full of suspenseful intrigue, conflict, and passion.

null The Gay & Lesbian Review

Swimming in the Dark is bound to become a queer literary classic, and its rather sweeping political dimension breaks new ground in the genre.” 

null The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

"A stupendous read: I could not put the book down. I urge you to order this book now. Its eloquence, its understanding of identity, belonging, loneliness and love is second to none. Powerful and uplifting."

Michael Cashman

A remarkable, beautiful tale . . . [that] is consonant with many of the traditions of gay fiction, yet is also utterly new and entirely credible . . . This book radiates sensuality, humour, and human truths . . . The reader is left wanting more. You won’t want to miss it.” 

Literary Review

Swimming in the Dark is captivating both for its shimmering surfaces and its terrifying depths. 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

"The 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

Imagine Call Me By Your Name set in Communist Poland and you'll get a sense of Jedrowski's moving debut about a consuming love affair amidst a country being torn apart.

O Magazine

"Beautifully judged, very moving, passionate… I was completely gripped."

Patricia Duncker

★ 03/01/2020

DEBUT This poignant love story unfolds against the backdrop of Communist Poland as the regime is about to come to its ignominious end in the 1980s. Amid the deprivations and duplicity of the era, two college students—Ludwik and Janusz—fall in love after meeting at a summer camp. They then spend an idyllic several weeks together in the countryside before returning to their lives in Warsaw. And that's where their troubles begin. It eventually becomes apparent to protagonist Ludwik that his lover is ready to make all kinds of compromises to get by in a corrupt and hated political system—including making love to the daughter of an important official. Meantime, the more idealistic Ludwik struggles with his homosexuality, fully aware that it is a danger in a state where the government uses it to blackmail citizens. Eventually, he is left with the choice of compromising or leaving the country. VERDICT German born of Polish parents, debut author Jedrowski here writes in English, and his lyrical prose reveals a complete command of the language. Readers who enjoy this impressive work will eagerly anticipate the author's next book. Highly recommended for all who enjoy a tale of love under the most difficult circumstances. [See Prepub Alert, 10/7/19.]—Edward B. Cone, New York

Library Journal

2020-01-13
A young gay man enters into a clandestine affair in the repressive political climate of communist Poland in the early 1980s.

From his new home in the Polish community of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Ludwik addresses this narrative to Janusz, the handsome university student he met at an agricultural "work education" camp outside Warsaw in the summer of 1980. His first sighting of Janusz is a pure coup de foudre, described in typically swoony terms: "A flash of heat traveled from my stomach to my cheeks, my thoughts jumbled like a ball of string….It was as if your presence already overpowered me, like a prophecy I was unable to read." Their summer romance, initiated during a hiking trip to the lake district, is an idyll that cannot last; the gray realities of Warsaw life—food and medicine shortages, tight party control over university advancement, an emerging protest movement subject to crackdown—will come between the lovers. While Ludwik imagines leaving the country to escape its oppressions (James Baldwin's novel of gay expatriate life in Paris, Giovanni's Room, is a touchstone), Janusz dates Hania, the daughter of an apparatchik, in order to enjoy special privileges. "Everyone is leading someone on," Janusz explains. "So what's wrong with taking things into your own hands and not letting yourself go under?" Their conflict comes to a head during a debauched weekend at the country estate of Hania's family, leading Ludwik toward his eventual fate. Debut novelist Jedrowski, born to Polish parents in Germany and now living in France, writes confidently in English—though his prose can turn overripe and his characters feel undernourished.

A broody tale of gay love and life behind the Iron Curtain.

Kirkus Reviews

This lovely debut . . . has the hallmarks of a restrained mini-classic: In simple, heartfelt prose, Jedrowski sketches a powerfully erotic first love transformed by politics into a romance roiled by risk and ethical ambiguity.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"This is a lyrical exploration of the conflict between gay love and political conformity. Jedrowski is an authentic new international star."

Edmund White

Remember the feeling of the last day of summer camp? Nostalgia for something you haven’t quite lost yet? Tomasz Jedrowski captures that wistfulness in his debut novel . . . Jedrowski’s writing reminds us that even in the face of oppression, life continues.

Ari Shapiro

In this glorious book, Jedrowski exquisitely captures the pleasure and pain of young love, while reminding us of what it means to hunger: for freedom – and for another.

The Independent

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