The plot itself, the combined coming of age story and doomed romance, is narrated as the intensely personal, soul-baring memoir of Ludwik in what almost amounts to a letter to his lost love - and his lost country. For brevity, I have limited myself to just two examples: 'The city glimmers like a sequinned dress of steel' and 'My thoughts were like swallows, nosediving, avoiding the ground, flying up and away'.

Marking audio clips disrupts the flow of the narrative, but I still made myself do it for at least the first half of the book. I found the use of language to be unlike anything I had experienced before the writing was vibrant and fresh, laced with shimmering, strikingly original similes. The queues for food the hunger after consuming the meagre pickings available the difficulty of accessing medical services the need to toe the line and not draw attention to one's self the Party's sway over freedoms - who can study for a PhD, who can leave the country. The historical aspects were fascinating and disturbing - I felt transported to the Poland of the 1980s, at the start of the fall of communism in that country. Swimming in the Dark: A Novel Audio CD Unabridged, Apby Tomasz Jedrowski (Author) 2,360 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle 14.49 Read with Our Free App Audiobook 0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover 24.22 11 Used from 19.75 1 New from 60.00 Paperback 16.99 20 Used from 11.49 25 New from 12. After being first published in English by Bloomsbury in February, Robert Sud's translation was released in Poland later in the month. This novel was subject to a 'hotly contested' six-way publishing auction, 1 from which Bloomsbury gained rights.

This is such a beautiful book on so many levels that I feel tempted to read it again immediately. Swimming in the Dark is a 2020 novel by Polish writer Tomasz Jdrowski. Love, loneliness and trying to do the right thing

Swimming in the dark tomasz