Entertainment
Unbearable Lightness of Being author Milan Kundera dies aged 94-Danni Scott-Entertainment – Metro
Author Milan Kundera has died.
Milan Kundera wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Picture: Francois Lochon/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Famed Czech novelist Milan Kundera has died after a prolonged illness at the age of 94 in Paris.
The author was best known for his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, published in 1984 after he fled his home country of Czechoslovakia for France.
Anna Mrazova, a spokeswoman for the Milan Kundera Library announced the reclusive writer had died on Tuesday, July 11, after a long illness.
‘Unfortunately, I can confirm that Mr Milan Kundera passed away yesterday after a prolonged illness,’ Mrazova told AFP. ‘He died at home, in his Paris apartment.’
Kundera lived in France from 1975 onwards, having fled the communist regime in his home country after he was banned from writing following the publication of his breakthrough novel The Joke.
His citizenship for the Czech Republic, still Czechoslovakia at the time, was revoked in 1979 and was not granted again until 50 years later in 2019.
Milan Kundera in 1982, the year he wrote Unbearable Lightness (Picture: Francois Lochon/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is regarded as a modern classic containing Kundera’s common motifs of political unrest and disquiet.
Originally titled Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí in his native language, it centres around the lives of two men, two women and a dog, taking place during the turbulent Prague Spring of 1968.
A film version was made in 1988, with Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche in the main roles and was nominated for two Academy Awards.
Kundera wrote 10 novels, short stories, poetry, essays and plays and was a frequent name mentioned in connection to the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Born on April 1, 1929, in Brno, Czechoslovakia, he went on to study music, literature and arts at Charles University in Prague before switching to film and theatre.
While in his teens Kundera joined the Communist Party, which he was later kicked out of for ‘anti-party’ activities – notably his support for the Prague Spring liberal movement.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is regarded as a modern classic
Juliette Binoche and Daniel Day-Lewis in The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (Picture: Saul Zaentz Company/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
He rose to prominence with his early works in the 50s, including an ode to communist hero Julius Fučík, published in 1955.
Kundera later dismissed these, claiming he was ‘working in many different directions – looking for my voice, my style and myself.’
The author became a French citizen in 1981 and settled in Rennes then Paris with wife Vera, who also lost her Czech citizenship.
He kept to himself, rarely speaking to the media, and published his final novel in 2014 called The Festival of Insignificance.
While this was met with middling reviews, Unbearable Lightness of Being is widely regarded as a must-read and the author is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century.
The Milan Kundera Library opened in his home town of Brno earlier this year in celebration of his 94th birthday.
It holds around 3,000 texts by or relating to Kundera and is located in the Moravian Library, although neither the reclusive author or his wife were there for the opening.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE : Jeremy Vine blasts ‘terrible’ BBC presenter scandal and wants it to stop
Entertainment – MetroRead More
