Tomasz Jedrowski

This is one of those novels that, while I'm listening, it's very good, but I'm not drawn back to it. I suspect I've now dipped in and out of it too many times, and I don't have a handle on the trajectory as outlined in the synopsis.

wow. i need a film adaptation of this immediately!!

This would be four and a half stars if such a thing existed. Very moving, very good characterization, and a completely immersive reading experience. In many ways this book is stronger than others in the same genre, the choices these characters make seem all too realistic and understandable, but the story is no less poignant for it.

The poetry of the love story between two boys in communist Poland is an enveloping reading experience. The use of language is heavenly. When you lines like this on the page, “ a strong neck with a place made out for his Adam’s apple” or “ I felt a dull reproach against myself, an alienation from my twenty-two-year old body” ,you can’t help but fall under the spell of the writing.