The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Kundera uses the novel as a philosophical testing ground and does so with a nonchalance that disorients at first but gradually seduces. Tomáš and Tereza are not conventional characters: they are ideas made flesh. That may put off readers seeking pure emotion, but for those who enjoy thinking while reading, it's a gift. The reflection on lightness and the weight of choices remains unsettling decades later. One of the great European novels of the twentieth century.