About the book
Set in the last years of the Polish People's Republic, Tomasz Jedrowski's debut novel centers on Ludwik, who meets Janusz at a summer agricultural work camp. Wary but fascinated, Ludwik finds the attraction shared, and Giovanni's Room, a contraband James Baldwin novel, helps draw them together. Janusz, who comes from a poor working-class family in the countryside, sees the Communist Party as his way up, and in their repressive Communist and Catholic society, what the two men feel for each other is unthinkable. The novel was longlisted for the HWA Debut Crown.
Dua Lipa called it a lovely coming-of-age romance played out amid the harsh politics of Communist Poland in the 1980s.
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This book has 1 recommendation
My May Monthly Read is Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski. It’s a beautiful coming-of-age love story set against the brutal political backdrop of Communist Poland in the 1980s.
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