Ludwik has brought with him a contraband edition of Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. There he meets the slightly older Janusz, a working-class student from the countryside who has dedicated himself to the Communist Party as a way out of rural poverty. Some years before, Ludwik, a recent college graduate, is spending his summer at an agricultural work camp in a rural part of the Polish People’s Republic. Written in the first-person, Swimming In the Dark takes the form of a letter from Ludwik to his former lover in Poland, Janusz, recounting and reflecting on their past relationship. The main character, Ludwik, has emigrated from Poland to New York City where he follows the political situation in Poland on the news. The present time of the novel is the early 1980s. Swimming in the Dark is a gay love story that takes place in the final years of the Polish People's Republic. It's just something I enjoyed from the very start, and I don't feel like it's my parents speaking through me when I'm writing in English, because we never spoke in English". It's not something that I happened to be born into. Jędrowski writes in English, which he attributed to English not having been "imposed on me. Jędrowski was born in 1985 in the Federal Republic of Germany. It received at least one starred review from Publishers Weekly, and was later longlist-nominated for the HWA Debut Crown. It received praise for both its quality of writing and compelling story as well as its tactful treatment of its LGBTQ themes. The writer’s debut novel, it is a gay love story set in the closing years of the Polish People's Republic.
After being first published in English by Bloomsbury in February, Robert Sudół's translation was released in Poland later in the month. This novel was subject to a "hotly contested" six-way publishing auction, from which Bloomsbury gained rights.
Swimming in the Dark is a 2020 novel by Polish writer Tomasz Jędrowski. 'An affecting and unusual romance' Observer 'A new classic' Evening Standard 'A beautiful novel, and at its heart an amazing love story' BBC Radio 4 Open Book, Editor's Pick 'Jedrowski is an authentic new international star' Edmund White 'A remarkable, beautiful tale, utterly new and entirely credible. Confronted by the scrutiny, intolerance and corruption of life under the Party, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart. But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw. Here he meets Janusz - and together they spend a dreamlike summer falling in love. Shy, anxious Ludwik has been sent along with the rest of his university class to an agricultural camp. LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2021 A Guardian Book of the Year 'The highest talent at work' Sebastian Barry 'Beautiful.
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