In Swimming in the Dark, two young men embark on a forbidden love affair during the final decade of Communist rule in 1980s Poland. Ludwik grew up with his mother and grandmother in Wrocław (the former German city of Breslau), displaced in an apartment "deserted by some family we'd never know, their dishes still in the sink, their bread crumbs on the table." Ludwik secretly listens to Radio Free Europe for news from the West and imagines a different life. Near the end of his studies, Ludwik's life irrevocably changes while attending an agricultural camp, picking beets.
Ludwik meets the handsome, confident Janusz but, overcome by shame, he merely admires him from afar. One day, Ludwik stumbles upon Janusz slumbering by a lake, and is coaxed to join him for a swim, where they become "one single body floating in the lake, weightless, never touching the ground." They share a blissful few weeks together, furtively reading a copy of James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room that articulates the feelings they never knew how to express. When camp ends, their respite from the real world gives way to circumstances beyond their control--a corrupt government that rewards the well-connected and leaves the masses to suffer, and a pervasive feeling of powerlessness in a society that punishes homosexuals.
Tomasz Jedrowski's sophisticated debut balances the exhilarating power of first love and what happens when the bubble bursts, as Janusz chooses assimilation into the Communist Party while Ludwik opts for agitation and dreams of the West. Wistful and incisive, Swimming in the Dark is a stirring novel of passion and depth. --Frank Brasile, librarian