Nietzsche is name-dropped in the first sentence of the novel, and the text is concerned with the burning philosophical questions that plague our existence. The narrator consistently places the lives of the individuals in perspective. Sabina then meets Franz, in a short-lived illusion of a happy resolution to their love triangle.

The pressure on Tomas to submit to the communist ideology eventually leads him, followed by his two lovers, to Switzerland. The political landscape and communist occupation of Prague intensifies the drama of the characters’ lives. Kundera creates an immersive read on an almost predictable whirl of love, sex and infidelity between Tomas, Theresa, Sabina and Franz. The personal lives of the characters are aligned and juxtaposed to the wider political drama in Czechoslovakia. As accurately reflected in its grand title it is the philosophical musings (rather than the plot) that make up the force of the novel. The novel tells the story of a group of romantically involved intellectuals and artists in Czechoslovakia during the period of Prague Spring in 1968. The news brings me back to Kundera’s most influential work, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, to see how it can still speak to a reader today. But he has recently regained his native citizenship, and been awarded the prestigious Czech literary award – the Franz Kafka prize.

Kundera spent his life and career in exile. The book will persuade you of the insignificance of your individual existence whilst also managing to feature a dog as one of the central characters. Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984) offers the same philosophical musings but with significantly less deaths. Many turned to works that would speak to the current situation, reflected in a surge of sales about fictional pandemics, such as Albert Camus’ The Plague. With its recurring lockdowns and periods of isolation, 2020 has been a year of intense philosophical reflection.

The unbearable lightness of being book