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 .'



'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.'



'A cult figure.' Guardian

'A dark and brilliant achievement.' Ian McEwan

'Shamelessly clever ... Exhilaratingly subversive and funny.' Independent

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



The French-Czech novelist Milan Kundera was born in the Czech Republic and has lived in France since 1975. He died in Paris in 2023.