If The Line of Beauty's tactile, unapologetic decadence left you craving more forbidden intimacy and political decay, let Swimming in the Dark by pull you under.
Curated by NextBookAfter Editors. This read-alike match weighs tone, themes, pacing, character dynamics, and emotional payoff rather than genre alone. See how recommendations are chosen.
Buy on AmazonWhy It's Your Next Read
- Lyrical prose rendering forbidden touch electric
- Communist-era hypocrisy meets unapologetic queer desire
- Sensory immersion: bodies, water, illicit text
- Intimate tension escalates as regime tightens
Jedrowski's prose doesn't flinch—it luxuriates. Where Hollinghurst traced Nick Guest through Thatcherite London salons, Swimming in the Dark submerges you in 1980s Poland, where every stolen touch between two young men carries the weight of the regime and the charge of liberation. The same exquisite attention to sensation—skin on skin, light through water, the forbidden thrill of literature itself—pervades every page, rendering desire as both political act and aesthetic rapture.
Communist-era hypocrisy gets skewered with the same precision Hollinghurst reserved for Tory excess, but here the stakes are survival, exile, complicity. Beauty and brutality collide without apology.
Beauty and brutality collide without apology.
What Readers Are Saying
"This story is emotional and heartbreaking. The writing is beautiful and so lyrical that I found myself re-reading paragraphs just to take them in completely." — Rebecca, Goodreads
"the gay longing in this novel made me scream! I loved the buildup and initial stages of the relationship between Ludwik, our protagonist, and Janusz, his romantic flame. Tomasz Jedrowski's writing felt both economical and lush; he sets each scene with concise and vivid detail to the point where every glance, exchange of dialogue, and touch between the two lovers made me want to burst into flames, in a positive way." — Thomas, Goodreads
"This was queer historical fiction at its finest, I'm absolutely gutted! As heartbreaking as this book was to read, I found myself wanting more..." — Frank Phillips, Goodreads
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