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.

Ambientata nei primi anni ’80 in una Polonia dilaniata dal violento declino del comunismo, una tenera e appassionata storia d’amore omosessuale tra due giovani che alla fine si trovano ai lati opposti dello scontro politico: un debutto letterario incredibilmente poetico e straziante.

«Un’esplorazione lirica del conflitto tra amore gay e conformità politica. Jedrowski è una nuova star internazionale».
Edmund White

«Elegante, irresistibile e pieno di malinconica bellezza. Da tenere sullo scaffale accanto ai romanzi di Alan Hollinghurst, Edmund White e altri classici del canone gay».
Evening Standard

Polonia, 1980. Ludwik Głowacki, ragazzo ansioso e disilluso prossimo alla laurea, è stato inviato insieme agli altri ragazzi del suo corso a un campo agricolo estivo. Qui incontra Janusz; insieme i due trascorrono un’estate da sogno nuotando in un lago appartato, leggendo libri proibiti e innamorandosi. Quando l’estate finisce, i due tornano a Varsavia e all’ipocrisia della vita sotto il Partito. Costretti a fare i conti con la dura realtà, Ludwik e Janusz devono decidere come sopravvivere e nelle loro scelte si trovano su fronti opposti.

Nuotare nel buio è un romanzo d’esordio indimenticabile sulla giovinezza, sull’amore, sulla perdita e sui sacrifici che facciamo ogni giorno per vivere una vita senza bugie.