The author of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, Milan Kundera passed away in Paris at the age of 94 after suffering from prolonged illness, as informed by Anna Mrazova, spokeswoman for the Milan Kundera Library on July 12. The Czech born author was never appreciated in his home country by the then in power communist party but he was known around world for his writings.
After the ban of his novel The Joke in his home country Czechoslovakia, he was rejected residence there and spent 40 years in exile in Paris before his Czech identity was revoked by the government in 1979. However he shred his original identity as a Czechoslovakian and took French citizenship in 1981.
Milan’s final work in Czech was Nesmrtelnost (Immortality) published in 1988. In 1993 he started writing in French with La lenteur (Slowness) and his final novel, in 2014, The Festival of Insignificance. He was often recognized as a contender for the Nobel Prize for his contribution to literature.
Apart from poems and novels, he was also a renowned playwriter and had a knack for music and art.