To be sure, several literary cafés in Warsaw and Kraków were open to gay people (Spartacus International Gay Guides listed several), but a sense that they were under surveillance was palpable. Ludwik, the student narrator, comes out at a time when gays had no role models to follow. It is a love story between two young men, one more invested in the relationship than the other, and why they drifted apart in the tumultuous politics of 1980s Poland. Many English-language publishing houses competed for the rights to his manuscript. How then must he find life in Catholic, conservative Poland? He has been critical of a French gay publication for not treating gays as ordinary people. He writes of his debt to a London writing group even though the narrative is set in Poland. His sensibilities mark him as a product of multicultural, super-diverse, LGBTQ-receptive England.

Born in Germany, Jedrowski earned a law degree at Cambridge, attended the University of Paris, and now is based in Poland surveying national identity and fashion.įluent in Polish and four other languages, the question nevertheless arises whether the novel could only have been conceived in England. Tomasz Jedrowski’s parents migrated from Poland to western Germany as the short-lived Solidarity period was crushed by the Polish Communists. He may brim with overconfidence about what life was like back then but may miss many of the subtleties. 195 pages.Īn author who wishes to recall a history known to his parents, but outside his own experience, often has a hard time getting it right.

Tomasz jedrowski swimming in the dark