The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The bestselling modern classic for fans of Dostoyevsky's White Nights and Sabahattin Ali's Madonna in a Fur Coat: the iconic novel of love, angst and politics in communist Czechoslovakia.

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, the Prague Spring and modern America, political acts and private desires, comedy and tragedy — in fact, all of human existence.

What readers are saying:

"Some books change your mind, some change your heart, the very best change your whole world... A mighty piece of work, that will shape your life forever."

"One of the best books I've ever read... A book about love and life, full of surprises. Beautiful."

"This book is going to change your life... It definitely leaves you with a hangover after you're done reading."

"Kundera writes about love as if in a trance so the beauty of it is enchanting and dreamy... Will stay with you."

"Shamelessly clever... Exhilaratingly subversive and funny." — Independent

"A modern classic... As relevant now as when it was first published." — John Banville