Swimming in the Dark
Book description
LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2021
A Guardian Book of the Year
'The highest talent at work' Sebastian Barry
'Beautiful ... A masterpiece' Attitude
Poland, 1980. Shy, anxious Ludwik has been sent along with the rest of his university class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Swimming in the Dark as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Oprah Magazine describes the novel as Call Me By Your Name set in Communist Poland and I cannot think of a more fitting description!
The romance between the leads, Ludwik and Janus begins in an idyllic summer in a rural setting. When the novel moves to Warsaw and Janus gets a prestigious, highly-coveted government job, politics enters their lives like an unwelcome but impossible-to-get-rid-of third party and their relationship pays the price. How could it not? It is, after all, the age of the iron curtain in a highly-religious Poland.
To read whether our heroes recover from this blow and…
From Shastri's list on international queer heroes.
Another international entry in the tales of angst-ridden gay teen love and longing, this time from Poland, where the stakes are higher—you can actually be arrested for it, maybe even killed. This was a gift from my editor, and I read it in two days while on vacation. It brought back all those feelings of teenage longing mixed with fear from my own experiences.
From Zev's list on books to come out to...at any age.
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