Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR. A Dua Lipa Book Club Pick. Some books arrive quietly and then refuse to leave you. This is one of them.

Picture early 1980s Poland, a country fracturing under the weight of a crumbling Communist regime. Now picture two young men, Ludwik and Janusz, meeting by a river at a summer agricultural camp. What begins as wariness becomes something exhilarating, tender, and utterly consuming.

For a few dreamlike weeks in the countryside, they fall deeply in love, bonding over a smuggled copy of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. But their society has no room for what they share. Back in Warsaw, the political world pulls them in opposite directions, the charismatic Janusz rising in the party ranks, Ludwik drawn toward protest. Slowly, achingly, their love begins to come apart.

As O, The Oprah Magazine put it: “Imagine Call Me By Your Name set in Communist Poland.” Author Justin Torres calls Jedrowski “a remarkable writer,” and this debut is “captivating both for its shimmering surfaces and its terrifying depths.”

Lyrical and sensual, this is a story for readers who love André Aciman, Garth Greenwell, and Alan Hollinghurst. A potent blend of romance, history, and quiet heartbreak.

It’s the kind of book made for lingering, ideally with the sea air drifting in and the afternoon stretching long. Come browse the shelf, hold the pages, and let this one find you.

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