From The Archives: Tomasz Jedrowski on his queer coming-of-age love story set in communist Poland

About this episode

Dua Lipa converses with Tomasz Jedrowski about his queer coming-of-age love story set in communist Poland.

From the archives this month, we bring you Dua’s conversation with Polish-German author Tomasz Jedrowski, author of Swimming In The Dark. Set in 1980, it’s a story of first love between Ludwig and Janus, told against the backdrop of communist Poland as the regime starts to crumble. This queer coming of age story explores a time and place where love, class and politics do not exist in isolation. The communist party looms large in this story, impacting both professional and personal relationships. Dua and Tomasz reflect on what might have been if their parents had not made the choices they did. Tomasz asks what life would have been like for a young gay man in Warsaw in his parents’ generation and Dua imagines growing up in Kosovo under the shadow of war. It’s an intimate and beautiful conversation that illuminates a turbulent period of recent history that many people today know little about. Join the club: 📩 Email us your thoughts – books@service95.com 📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for more author interviews 📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – and be the first to discover Dua’s next pick – at service95.com And don’t forget to hit ‘subscribe’ wherever…

People in this episode

Host: Dua Lipa

Guest: Tomasz Jedrowski

Topics covered

• queer coming-of-age
• communist Poland
• first love
• politics and love
• personal relationships
• historical context

Keywords

• queer
• love story
• communism
• Poland
• 1980
• Tomasz Jedrowski
• Dua Lipa
• first love
• historical narrative

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Swimming In The Dark

Places: Poland, Kosovo

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