40th anniversary edition of the bestselling modern classic - The Unbearable Lightness of Being is an iconic novel of love and politics in communist Czechoslovakia, a story of irreconcilable love and infidelities in which Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of twentieth-century 'Being', offering a wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations. First published in 1984, Kundera's masterly novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy and was at once hailed by critics as a contemporary classic.
A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon: a man torn between his love for her and his womanising. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals, while her other lover stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities.
In a world where lives are shaped by choices and events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance and weight - and we feel 'the unbearable lightness of being'. Kundera's classic provoked a whole generation, encompassing passion and philosophy, body and soul, infidelity and ideas, the Prague Spring and modern America, political acts and private desires, comedy and tragedy - in fact, all of human existence.
'Shamelessly clever ... Exhilaratingly subversive and funny.' Independent
'A modern classic ... As relevant now as when it was first published.' John Banville
'Read this book; here is a writer who really matters.' Malcolm Bradbury
'There are novels that are tragic, or entertaining, and this one is both. There are very few that give a fresh perspective on existence, and force the reader to reassess his own life and attitudes.' Victoria Glendinning, Sunday Times
'The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a work of the boldest mastery, originality and richness.' Vanity Fair
