Wait for the sea

A young university student from Gothenburg arrives on the Isle of Wight off the coast of England to spend a few months studying English. At first glance, he is no different from other Swedish students who went to England in the 1960s to learn a foreign language. Soon after his arrival, he meets an English literature professor ten years his senior. He discovers that she is hiding the same secret as he is, and the two men begin a passionate love affair that, despite the relaxing atmosphere of the late 1960s, still has immeasurable consequences for their lives. Although the criminalisation of homosexuality was officially abolished in England and Wales in 1967, the heroes still have to deal with prejudice and misunderstanding of their surroundings.

The sovereign prose of the young Czech author is written in a poetic language that corresponds with the melancholic atmosphere of the Isle of Wight. The seashore, the eternal autumn mists and rains, the protagonists wrapped in a blanket and sipping tea on the terrace overlooking the sea. But their story also takes us to eccentric London and mundane Brighton, where a cosmopolitan atmosphere, hippies and bands like the Rolling Stones, The Who and The Turtles reign supreme. This wave will also pass through the Isle of Wight, and together with the narrator we will visit the famous Isle of Wight Festival in Godshill, compared to the American Woodstock. But even this is of no use to the two main characters of the book. If the cards had been dealt differently, they might just have had their love affair in seclusion. In this way, however, their story becomes more and more a ballad that captivates the reader from the first page.