Classic Novel Finally In Czech

19 November 2006, 11:23 - Culture
Unbearable Lightness of Being, novel by Milan Kundera, one of the most prominent Czech authors in 20th century, has been issued in Czech after more than twenty years years of waiting.

The novel, written in Czech in 1984, probably the most famous work of Mr Kundera, was translated into dozens of languages, but never appeared in his native land, in his native tongue.

The book focuses on the fateful year of 1968, when the hopes of the Prague Spring were crushed by Warsaw Pact tanks and replaced by a hard-line period of normalization. This has been in fact accompanied by so called »clean-outs«, when many people - those who were in opposition to Soviet intervence - were forced to leave thier jobs. The book tale is told through the eyes of two young couples.

The novel in fact was first published in Czech in 1985, by 68 Publishers, a small Toronto-based publisher established by Czech exile writers.

Kundera leaved Czechoslovakia in 1974 and now he lives in France. His novels are now in French, not Czech. But until now he refused almost all requests about translation of his most famous novels that emerged during his »French era« into Czech, or even being published here. Anyway, some of his works have been illegaly translated and have circulated on the internet. For example, Czech translation of his novel L'Identité (Identity) made from the English print has been anonymously published on the internet in June 2006.