Tomasz Jedrowski’s SWIMMING IN THE DARK reimagined as an opera in Key West, Florida

Tomasz Jedrowski’s ‘modern literary classic’ SWIMMING IN THE DARK is set to make its debut on the opera stage this week, with the premiere of the first act of an adaptation at a developmental staged concert in Key West, Florida on Friday 21 March. Written by composer Martin Hennessy and librettist Stephen Kitsakos, there will be two initial performances of the work-in-progress English-language opera from 21 to 22 March at The Studios of Key West, where they will be joined by Tomasz in person for the premiere.

The adaptation is a collaboration between composer Martin Hennessy, librettist Stephen Kitsakos, and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music Opera & Ballet Theater. Featuring 18 artists from Jacobs, and directed by Michael Shell, Resident Opera Stage Director at the Jacobs School, the 85-minute Act One will be performed in English by 12 singers and a chamber ensemble.

‘The story unfolds in 1980, as the communist Polish People’s Republic teeters on the edge of collapse,’ said librettist Stephen Kitsakos. “At its heart is a passionate love affair, but it’s also a gripping political thriller set in a country being torn apart by upheaval.’

Tickets for the performances are available from The Studios of Key West website.

First published by Bloomsbury in 2020, SWIMMING IN THE DARK has since become a worldwide sensation, embraced by both critics and new generations of fans on BookTok – including the pop singer Dua Lipa, who picked the book for her Service95 Book Club in May 2024. The novel was a finalist for the Polari First Book Prize in 2021, has so far been translated into eighteen languages, with film/TV, theatre and opera rights all under option for adaptation. It was published in the USA by William Morrow.

Poland, 1980. Shy, anxious Ludwik has been sent along with the rest of his university class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz – and together they spend a dreamlike summer falling in love.

But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw. Confronted by the scrutiny, intolerance and corruption of life under the Party, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive; and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart.

Photo: Kuba Dabrowski

About Tomasz Jedrowski

Tomasz was born in West Germany to Polish parents and studied law at Cambridge. He lives in France, exploring local history, national identity, and ecology.

His debut novel SWIMMING IN THE DARK was published by Bloomsbury in the UK and William Morrow in the USA, and has been translated into eighteen languages. Film/TV rights and opera rights have been optioned. The novel was a finalist for the Polari First Book Prize (2021).

Praise for SWIMMING IN THE DARK

‘Marvellous, precise, poignant writing; the reader is happy to be overwhelmed. The highest talent at work.’ – Sebastian Barry

‘A lyrical exploration of the conflict between gay love and political conformity. Jedrowski is an authentic new international star.’ – Edmund White

‘Heartbreak – yes, I’m a romantic – is what we get from Tomasz Jedrowski’s exquisite debut novel, SWIMMING IN THE DARK. Set in 1980s Poland, this love story captivates and is so beautifully written I return to it again and again.’ – Guardian

‘Readers will relish the indelible prose, which approaches the mastery of Alan Hollinghurst. Jedrowski’s portrayal of Poland’s tumultuous political transformation over several decades makes this a provocative, eye-opening exploration of the costs of defying as well as complying with social and political conventions.’ – Publishers Weekly

‘A stupendous read: I could not put the book down. I urge you to order this book now. Its eloquence, its understanding of identity, belonging, loneliness and love is second to none. Powerful and uplifting.’ – Lord Michael Cashman, co-founder of Stonewall

Romalyn Ante’s AGIMAT longlisted for the inaugural Jhalak Poetry Prize

Author photo: S Chadawong

Congratulations to Romalyn Ante, whose second poetry collection AGIMAT (Chatto & Windus) has been longlisted for this year’s Jhalak Prize, celebrating the best book published in the UK and Ireland by a writer of colour. Previously shortlisted in 2021 for her debut collection ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS, Romalyn is this year recognised in the new category exclusively for poetry collections.

Other authors nominated for the longlist alongside Romalyn were Khairani Barokka, Azad Ashim Sharma, Mimi Khalvati, Claudine Toutoungi, Nisha Ramayya, Rushika Wick, Amaan Hyder, Raymond Antrobus, Tim Tim Cheng, Karen McCarthy Woolf and the late Gboyega Odubanjo. The poetry prize will be judged by Jason Allen-Paisant, Malika Booker and Will Harris, with the shortlist due to be announced on 22 April, followed by the winners on 4 June.

‘This longlist demands to be looked at,’ said the judges of the poetry prize in a press release. ‘These are twelve poetry books by writers of colour published at a time when fewer than 1% of students at GCSE level study a book by a writer of colour. These are books saying valuable things in unusual forms. Like all good poetry, each book is uniquely receptive to the speech of our time, finding out the spaces in language where ideology inserts itself and picking it apart.’

‘It is clear in the ninth year of the Jhalak Prize awards that the quality of work being produced by writers of colour in Britain and Ireland is extraordinary,’ said Prize founder Sunny Singh. ‘The judges for all three awards, including our inaugural Jhalak Poetry Prize, have struggled to select only twelve books for each longlist and have chosen them with immense care, difficulty and heartbreak for all the books that they could not include. These books do not flinch from the harsh realities of our histories, times and lives. Yet they are also books full of love, hope and joy.’

About AGIMAT:

this charms the buried light of stars –

this deflects bullets – this unblooms a war –

In some Filipino clans, parents pass down to each child an AGIMAT, an amulet, in the hope its magic will protect and empower them. In a world of daily pain and loss, Romalyn Ante’s second collection asks: how do we keep safe what we hold most dear?

At the dawn of the pandemic, the poet – a practising nurse in the NHS – is thrown onto the frontlines of the war against COVID-19. Past conflicts swim into the now. When she falls in love with a man of Japanese heritage, it forces a reckoning with her family’s suffering under Japan’s brutal wartime occupation of the Philippines. Elsewhere, we meet the irrepressible goddess Mebuyan, who, in Philippine myth, nurses the spirits of children in the underworld. Here, she watches over young people in crisis – a girl who can’t stop cutting herself, a teenager who has leapt from a railway viaduct.

These are poems of strength and solace; they question what it means to fight, and what it takes to heal.

Romalyn is currently writing her debut novel, THE LEFT-BEHIND CHILD, a lyrical and vivid depiction of childhood and rupture inspired by her and her mother’s stories of leaving the Philippines to work and care for others in the United Kingdom, which will be published by Chatto & Windus in Spring 2026.

About Romalyn Ante

Romalyn Ante FRSL is a British-Filipino poet, essayist, and editor. She grew up in the Philippines and migrated to her second home, Wolverhampton, in 2005.

She is co-founding editor of harana poetry, a magazine for poets who write in English as a second or parallel language, and the founder of Tsaá with Roma, an online interview series with poets and other creatives. She was awarded the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship and she currently sits as an editorial board member for Poetry London magazine. 

She is the first East-Asian to win the Poetry London Prize (2018) and the Manchester Poetry Prize (2017). She also won the Creative Future Literary Award 2017.

Apart from being a writer, she also works as a specialist nurse practitioner. Her debut poetry collection, ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS, is published by Chatto & Windus and was an Irish Times Best Poetry Book of 2020, an Observer Poetry Book of the Month and a Poetry School Poetry Book of the Year 2020. It was also a National Poetry Day UK Recommended Read and was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize.

 Praise for AGIMAT

‘In her spellbinding meditation on love and loss, hope is less “the thing with feathers” and more the thing with forceps… I felt grateful for the tender attention the poet affords to a hope that many of us hold dear: that as patients – that as people – we may amount to more than just flesh and bone. Thankfully, in the hands of Romalyn Ante the human self far exceeds statistics and the subtotal of all its scars.’ – Jade Cuttle, The Observer

‘Unflinching in detailing the physical and emotional exhaustion of [nursing], and also delivers deft political commentary… As she moves between the Philippines and the Midlands, and touches on her relationships with her family and partner, what unites the poems is her simple, beautiful language, and an awareness of the difficulty of healing.’ – Rishi Dastidar, ‘The Best Recent Poetry’, The Guardian

‘Ante is an alchemical wonder of a poet: unparalleled in her image-making, raw to both historical and contemporary damage and rich in cultures… Keep these poems with you as I will – always.’ – Fiona Benson

‘Romalyn Ante’s mesmeric new collection is deeply rooted in the dualities of life, cultural identity, and the profound interplay of personal and communal experience. Vivid, lyrical, and always surprising, it is a testament to those who navigate the complex legacies of history toward healing and resilience.’ – Nathan Filer

‘With precision, deftness, and at times playfulness, AGIMAT weaves in mythical and modern imageries, the universal with the intimate. The result is a powerful and hopeful collection, filled with heart and beauty, that illuminates us to the many forms that caring and healing can take.’ – Cecile Pin

Praise for Romalyn Ante

‘Captivating, playful, moving, witty and agile... an unforced poet with a lightness of touch and fortitude’ – The Guardian

‘Romalyn Ante is a poet to fall in love with’ – Liz Berry

‘Ante's poems are like embers, pared back to a slow-burning emotional core’ – Times Literary Supplement

Vist Romalyn’s website.

Follow Romalyn on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram. 

Graeme Macrae Burnet pens new novella BENBECULA for Polygon’s Darkland Tales

Photo credit: Euan Anderson

Booker shortlisted author Graeme Macrae Burnet’s new book, BENBECULA, has been acquired by Scottish independent publisher Polygon. The book will be the sixth entry in Polygon’s acclaimed Darkland Tales series, in which Scottish authors reimagine key moments from Scottish history, myth and legend. Graeme’s novella will join previous titles in the series including RIZZIO by Denise Mina, HEX by Jenni Fagan, and most recently, QUEEN MACBETH by Val McDermid. Polygon Editor-at-Large Jamie Crawford acquired UK and British Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann. BENBECULA will be published by Polygon in Winter 2025, with offers from other international publishers already under consideration.

The book is based on a true story from the 19th Century – chanced upon by Graeme late in the writing of HIS BLOODY PROJECT – concerning a murder committed on the Scottish island of Benbecula.

On the 9th of July 1857, a twenty-five-year-old labourer named Angus MacPhee bludgeoned to death his parents and aunt in the crofting community on the remote Hebridean island of Benbecula. Five years later, Angus's older brother Malcolm recounts the events leading up to the murders while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity. Malcolm is ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode, but is he as innocent as he seems? 

BENBECULA promises a tale of darkness, violence and madness, leavened by moments of black humour and absurdity, perfect for fans of HIS BLOODY PROJECT as well as Graeme’s wider work.

Author Graeme Macrae Burnet said, ‘I couldn't be more thrilled to be writing a novella for Polygon's Darkland Tales, a series that has quickly established itself as “must-read” for anyone interested in Scottish literature and history. I find myself immersed in a grimly fascinating murder case that has haunted me since I first came across it over a decade ago.’

‘Graeme is the perfect author for the Darklands series – wonderfully adept at mashing-up convention and genre, and a master at the darkly humorous and subversive tone that makes these books such compelling reads,’ says Jamie Crawford. ‘It will be hugely exciting to see his thrilling vision for this latest tale make its way on to the page.’

Isobel Dixon also commented: ‘Graeme is so brilliant at exploring the fertile borderlands of fact and fiction in his work and I’m delighted that Jamie Crawford realised how Polygon’s Darkland Tales series forms a perfect match for that sensibility. I know that readers will be utterly gripped by what Graeme makes of this historic family tragedy in the Outer Hebrides – already we’re fielding a great deal of interest in other rights.’

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was brought up Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London. He has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as in the UK, and has twice been nominated for the Booker Prize. He has also been shortlisted for European and American literary awards.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, the year he won Author of the Year for the Sunday Herald Culture Awards. A CASE OF MATRICIDE, the final title in the Gorski trilogy, was published in October 2024 by Saraband in the UK and Biblioasis in the US.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Awards. It has been published to great acclaim around the world and is optioned for theatre and film. His novel CASE STUDY was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction 2022.

Graeme has also written shorter pieces to commission, including the short story ‘The Dark Thread’ for THESE OUR MONSTERS: The English Heritage Book of New Folktale, Myth and Legend (September Publishing, 2019/2024) and the serialised story ‘Wolverine Blues’, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and is available to listen to on BBC Sounds.

Praise for Graeme Macrae Burnet

‘Maddeningly brilliant.’ –  Hannah Kent

‘A writer of great skill and authority.’ – Barry Forshaw, Financial Times

‘Extravagantly talented.’ – Mark Lawson, The Guardian

‘He is an uncommonly interesting and satisfying novelist.’ – Allan Massie, The Scotsman

‘Utterly enthralling.’ – Angie Harms, Sunday Mail

‘There’s no denying that Booker nominee and Saltire winner Graeme Macrae Burnet’s clever blend of crime and literary metafiction has been an artistic and critical triumph. His books engross as much as they tease, setting up questions about authorship and artifice, but never at the expense of a compelling narrative.’ – Alastair Mabbot, The Herald

Visit Graeme Macrae Burnet’s website

Follow Graeme on Instagram

Follow Graeme on X

THE GHOSTS OF ROME by Joseph O’Connor hits Number One in Ireland

THE GHOSTS OF ROME, the second literary thriller in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy by bestselling author Joseph O’Connor, has jumped straight to Number One on the Irish bestseller chart after three days on sale and is in the Top 20 in the UK hardback chart as well.

The novel is published by Harvill Secker in the United Kingdom and Ireland and has just been published in the US and Canada by Europa Editions. In the UK, THE GHOSTS OF ROME was launched at Daunt Books in Marylebone and at the Irish Embassy in London where Joe was in conversation with Emma Madigan, Irish Diplomat and Former Ambassador of Republic of Ireland to the Holy See. A sold-out event at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, launched the bestselling Irish edition.

February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome. Inside the beleaguered city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini is a member of the band of Escape Line activists known as ‘The Choir’. Their mission is to smuggle refugees to safety and help Allied soldiers, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann.

During a ferocious morning air raid a mysterious parachutist lands in Rome and disappears into the backstreets. Is he an ally or an imposter? His fate will come to put the whole Escape Line at risk.

Meanwhile, Hauptmann’s attention has landed on the Contessa. As his fascination grows, she is pulled into a dangerous game with him – one where the consequences could be lethal.

Like MY FATHER’S HOUSE before it, THE GHOSTS OF ROME has been published to widespread acclaim. In The Guardian, Laura Wilson called the novel ‘nail-bitingly tense… vivid and moving’ in her round up of the ‘Best Recent Crime and Thrillers’ while the Sunday Times named it as one of their ‘Books to Look out for in 2025. The Sunday Independent commented that ‘The version of the war created here rings so emotionally true and clear… The writing has the energy and tension of a thriller yet the language is rich, visual and beautiful. The narration swoops in close to each character then the lens widens, almost cinematically. It becomes a bird flying over the city, strong and free, observing the tragedy and chaos below. Fans will love this return to the Choir.’

Reviewers in the US also have high praise for THE GHOSTS OF ROME. In a rave review in The New York Times, Alex Preston said ‘O’Connor has often been likened to the great Irish modernists for the lyricism of his voice-driven novels. But THE GHOSTS OF ROME also situates him within a broader European tradition of memory and moral reckoning, one that returns again and again to World War II. O’Connor embraces this legacy while transcending its cliches… What emerges is not just a wartime thriller, though it is that, but a meditation on how we remember, how we resist and how, even in the darkest times, humanity endures.’ Kirkus Reviews said ‘the story is exciting and rich with prose that’s a joy to read… Top-notch storytelling filled with emotion and drama’ while Publishers Weekly called the novel ‘pulse-pounding’ in a starred review. More praise can be found below.

The first novel in the trilogy, MY FATHER’s HOUSE, was published by Harvill Secker and Europa Editions in 2023, when it flew straight to Number One on the Irish bestseller charts, remaining there for four consecutive weeks. It has now sold more than 100,000 copies in the English language. It was shortlisted for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the Eason An Post Irish Novel of the year 2023, and also longlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award.

 

Praise for THE GHOSTS OF ROME

‘O’Connor has done his research with care, drawing on O’Flaherty’s unpublished letters, diaries and journalism. With his real people in place, the author spins a new tale of derring-do, recounted with the help of imagined interviews conducted many years later… O’Connor paints a lively picture of a city filled with Fascist police and German soldiers, some on furlough from the North, everyone watchful and hungry, the streets filthy, the black-market prices rising every day… THE GHOSTS OF ROME is both a tribute to the imagination and courage of his remarkable team and a riveting thriller.’ – Caroline Moorehead, The Times Literary Supplement

‘A mesmerising, tragic, horrifying, utterly unputdownable story… A deeply affecting read with an ending that’s sad yet life affirming, this is an outstanding choice for fans of WWII fiction and of writers like Anthony Doerr.’ – Emily Melton, Booklist, starred review

‘O’Connor is a novelist capable of real poetry who also gives thriller fans a reason to turn the pages… Meticulously researched… This tremendous piece of work captures everything from the Ardeatine massacre to the musicality of the eternal city, which the roar of war cannot quell… There’s also a satisfying ending before the touching coda, setting things up nicely for the trilogy’s final entry. If it’s even half as good as this, it will be a very good book indeed.’ – Pat Carty, The Business Post

‘From the opening tour de force sequence of the Allied air-raid on Rome to the brilliantly done (and unexpected) coda, I found it utterly gripping and, if anything, even more enjoyable, atmospheric and informative than MY FATHER’S HOUSE was (a high bar to clear)… a tremendous read.’ – Peter Kemp

‘There is no finer writer of historical fiction than Joseph O’Connor. Nazi occupied Rome springs to life under his skilful pen.  In THE GHOSTS OF ROME, the tension builds almost unbearably as the Contessa faces down Commander Hauptmann. Beautifully written, warm and witty, this story of a terrorised city is a must-read. Thrilling, terrifying and entertaining in equal measure. Bravo!’ – Liz Nugent

‘It was hard to turn pages fast enough to keep up with the rapid-fire pace of THE GHOSTS OF ROME. Joseph O’Connor lures readers into a little known, but important, facet of World War II history and keeps them hooked until the very last page.’ – Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE and THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM

‘The lyricism of his writing is sublime.’ – Ryan Tubridy

‘Joseph O’Connor’s THE GHOSTS OF ROME is as thrilling, beautiful and sensational a novel as you’ll read this year or any year.’ – Donal Ryan, What Our Top Authors Are Reading Now, Irish Sunday Times

‘O’Connor’s characters, historical and fictional, resonate with all the villainy, heroics, indecisiveness, kindness and headstrong daredevilry that make up any group of humans from kindergarten on – but here, uniqueness can prove lethal.’ – E. B. Boatner, Lavendar

‘Lovers of suspenseful stories, students of WWII history and those who are looking for a novel with relatable characters and a worthy moral framework will surely find this one to their pleasure.’ – Reading the West

‘Eternal Rome is always in the background as bombings scatter ancient artifacts and the city’s great age brings old shadows to the streets... Superb storytelling.’ – Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader

‘O’Connor continues to stun with this follow-up to MY FATHER’S HOUSE ...Chilling, engrossing, inspiring!’ – Kelly Justice, Fountain Books

‘NOT just another WWII story, this one is filled with such memorable characters and the suspense is truly thrilling and I am exceedingly anxious for the third and final book in this wonderful series. I need to know what happens… the suspense is killing me!’ – Mollie Mitchell, Heathfire Books

‘Intense and riveting... I’ve become attached to the characters, and it is easy to get lost in the time and place of events. O’Connor is a master storyteller and not to be missed! A must read!!’ – Stephanie Crowe, Page & Palette

 

 About Joseph O’Connor

Photo credit: Urszula Soltys

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin, where he still lives. THE GHOSTS OF ROME is his eleventh novel: he is also the author of film scripts, radio and stage plays, two collections of short stories, and several bestselling works of non-fiction.

2022 was the 20th anniversary of Joseph O’Connor’s novel STAR OF THE SEA which was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies in the UK alone and being published in 38 languages. It won France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year.

His novel GHOST LIGHT was chosen as Dublin’s One City Book novel for 2011. Published in 2019, SHADOWPLAY, has won him extraordinary praise, was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, The Dalkey Novel Prize, the Costa Novel Prize, among others, and won him Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. The French edition was shortlisted for the Jean Monnet Prize and the Vintage paperback was a Richard and Judy Winter 2020 pick.

He holds an honorary Doctorate in Literature from University College Dublin and received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012. He is the Inaugural Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

 

Visit Joseph O’Connor’s website.