It may be hard to imagine that Dua Lipa has time to read, given all that she’s doing to promote her new album, Radical Optimism, but she’s officially announced the May pick for her Service95 Book Club.

The book is Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski, about two young men who fall in love in Communist Poland in the ’80s, when such relationships were forbidden. Dua describes it as a “beautiful coming-of-age love story” that’s “poetic and tender,” yet “burning with a quiet rage at the persecution the LGBTQ+ community in Poland has suffered for decades and continues to fight against today.”

As part of this month’s Book Club content, Dua’s done a Q&A with Tomasz. For context, you can read an article about LGBTQ rights in Poland; Tomasz has also contributed a reading list and a playlist of songs he listened to while writing the book. 

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