num_pages: 305
description: Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.In this novel - a story of irreconcilable loves and infidelities - Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of twentieth-century 'Being' In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. We feel, says the novelist, 'the unbearable lightness of being' - not only as the consequence of our private acts but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.Juxtaposing Prague, Geneva, Thailand and the United States, this masterly novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy, and embraces, it seems, all aspects of human existence. It offers a wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations and it descants on a variety of styles. In this classic novel Kundera draws together the Czechoslovakia of the Prague Spring and the Russian invasion, the philosophy of Nietzsche, and the love affairs of a number of heartbreakingly familiar characters.
language: English
title: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
titlecomplete: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
characters: Franz, Karenin, Sabine, Tereza, Tomáš
genres: 20th Century, Literature, Classics, Literary Fiction, Novels, Czech Literature, Philosophy, Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
ratings_count: 446456
places: Switzerland, Zurich, Prague (Praha), Czech Republic
awards: awardedAt: 441792000000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 725875200000
name: Prix Aujourd'hui
publisher: Faber & Faber