num_pages: 240
description: Sometimes - perhaps only for an instant - we fail to recognise a companion; for a moment their identity ceases to exist, and thus we come to doubt our own. The effect is at its most acute in a couple where our existence is given meaning by our perception of a lover, and theirs of us.With his astonishing skill at building on and out from the significant moment, Kundera has placed such a situation and the resulting wave of panic at the core of the novel. In a narrative as intense as it is brief, a moment of confusion sets in motion a complex chain of events which forces the reader to cross and recross the divide between fantasy and reality. Profound, sad and disquieting but above all a love story, Identity provides further proof of Kundera's astonishing gifts as a novelist.
language: English
title: Identity
titlecomplete: Identity
characters: Jean-Marc, Chantal
genres: 20th Century, Philosophy, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Classics, Fiction, Contemporary, Czech Literature, France
ratings_count: 26792
places: Normandy, Paris
publisher: HarperCollins