Big Books of 2026
Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera’s Followers (19,003)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo

Milan Kundera


Born
in Brno, Czechia, Czech Republic
April 01, 1929

Died
July 11, 2023

Genre
Literature & Fiction

Influences
Robert Musil, Witold Gombrowicz, Sterne, Diderot, François Rabelais, H ...more


Milan Kundera (1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. He went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.

Kundera wrote in Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; people therefore consider these original works as not translations. He is best known for his novels, including The Joke (1967), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), all of which exhibit his extreme though often comical skepticism.
 ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.01 · 887,671 ratings · 59,251 reviews · 185 distinct works • Similar authors
The Unbearable Lightness of...
4.11 avg rating — 540,163 ratings — published 1984 — 477 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Book of Laughter and Fo...
3.95 avg rating — 54,067 ratings — published 1979 — 3 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Immortality
4.14 avg rating — 42,871 ratings — published 1990 — 11 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Joke
4.03 avg rating — 40,375 ratings — published 1967 — 258 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Laughable Loves
3.81 avg rating — 38,802 ratings — published 1963 — 27 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Identity
3.69 avg rating — 33,096 ratings — published 1997 — 4 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Ignorance
3.81 avg rating — 27,743 ratings — published 2000 — 2 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Life is Elsewhere
by
3.96 avg rating — 21,346 ratings — published 1973 — 142 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Slowness
by
3.60 avg rating — 22,530 ratings — published 1995 — 175 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Farewell Waltz
3.87 avg rating — 19,945 ratings — published 1972 — 201 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
More books by Milan Kundera…
Quotes by Milan Kundera  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful.”
― Milan Kundera
7644 likes
Like

“You can't measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange.”
― Milan Kundera
3893 likes
Like

“Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
tags: goals, success
3872 likes
Like

Polls

March 2016 Revisit the Shelf Reread Poll

 
  25 votes, 12.0%

 
  18 votes, 8.7%

 
  18 votes, 8.7%

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 277 pages, 1953
 
  17 votes, 8.2%

 
  17 votes, 8.2%

 
  15 votes, 7.2%

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, 200 pages, 1899
 
  14 votes, 6.7%

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, 320 pages. 1935
 
  14 votes, 6.7%

1984 by George Orwell, 268 pages, 1949
 
  13 votes, 6.3%

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 453 pages, 1961
 
  12 votes, 5.8%

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 672 pages, 1960
 
  11 votes, 5.3%

 
  10 votes, 4.8%

 
  7 votes, 3.4%

Despair by Vladimir Nabokov, 212 pages, 1934
 
  7 votes, 3.4%

 
  5 votes, 2.4%

Out of Africa by Karen Blixen, 399 pages, 1937
 
  5 votes, 2.4%

208 total votes
More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Chicks On Lit: January Noms 14 188 Nov 11, 2008 02:01PM  
The Next Best Boo...: Books, Planes, Memories 16 198 Dec 03, 2008 06:12AM  
The Next Best Boo...: Hello from London! 30 264 Jan 10, 2009 04:15AM  
75 Books...More o...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Authors you love 17 2302 Jan 27, 2009 04:14AM  
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL WINTER CHALLENGE - 2008/2009 2155 4187 Mar 04, 2009 07:03AM  
SciFi and Fantasy...: Tigana discussion -- Sexuality *Possible Spoilers* 30 153 May 28, 2009 12:21PM  
The Seasonal Read...: FALL CHALLENGE 2009 PLANS 167 1529 Oct 14, 2009 08:10AM  
College Students! : WINNERS for November! 32 156 Oct 22, 2009 06:03PM  
The Next Best Boo...: February's WINNERS ARE..... 102 509 Feb 01, 2010 01:13PM  
SA Book & Challen...: The Patchwork Challenge (Suggestions) 85 68 Sep 06, 2010 12:10PM