Celebrate: “Swimming in the Dark” by Tomasz Jedrowski

Antwerp celebrates Pride in August and so do we, with our new potential queer favourite!

Tomasz Jedrowski’s debut novel “Swimming in the Dark” is an affecting and unusual romance, with a political undercurrent. In 1980 Poland, a love affair begins between Ludwik, a closeted and anxious young graduate, and the more worldly Janusz.

No longer adolescents but not quite men, the two friends spend their time harvesting beet, backpacking through the countryside, gorging themselves on cherries, swimming in lakes and secretly reading Giovanni’s Room while trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives.