The two young men develop a friendship and swim together at a nearby river. Ludwik meets Janusz at a work education camp shortly after they graduate from university. Most of this novel consists of flashbacks to events of the previous year. Radio reports of unrest rekindle memories of his homeland, specifically of the young man with whom he fell in love. When the government crackdown begins in ’81, Ludwik is living in New York. These were the early years of Solidarity (the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country), which led to communist Poland’s declaration of martial law. That’s the situation in which Polish university student Ludwik Glowacki finds himself in Swimming in the Dark, a moving work set in 19. Most people experience this sensation at some point, but imagine how intense it would be if you were a gay man coming of age under a government that expected allegiance you weren’t prepared to offer. It’s tough to feel like you don’t belong.
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