description: In this dark farce of a novel, set in an old-fashioned Central Euroepean spa town, eight characters are swept up in an accelerating a pretty nurse &amp; her repairman boyfriend; an oddball gynecologist; a rich American (at once saint &amp; Don Juan); a popular trumpeter &amp; his beautiful, obsessively jealous wife; an unillusioned former political prisoner about to leave his country &amp; his young woman ward.Perhaps the most brilliantly plotted &amp; sheerly entertaining of Milan Kundera's novels, Farewell Waltz poses the most serious questions with a blasphemous lightness that makes us see that the modern world has deprived us even of the right to tragedy.Written in Bohemia in 1969-70, this book was first published in 1976 in France under the title La valse aux adieux (Farewell Waltz), &amp; later in thirty-four other countries. This beautiful new translation, made from the French text prepared by the novelist himself, fully reflects his own tone &amp; intentions. As such it offers an opportunity for both the discovery &amp; the rediscovery of one of the very best of a great writer's works.
language: French
title: La Valse aux Adieux
titlecomplete: La Valse aux Adieux
characters: Skreta, Kalima, Ruzena, Jakub, Klima
genres: Classics, Roman, France, European Literature, Novels, 20th Century, Literature, Contemporary, Fiction, Czech Literature
ratings_count: 16448
publisher: French & European Pubns