Milan Kundera, Author of ’The Unbearable Lightness of Being', Dies at 94

Anna Mrazova, a spokesperson of a library in Brno, said that Milan Kundera passed away at his home in Paris.

Milan Kundera.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Milan Kundera, the Czech-born author of the critically-acclaimed novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, died at the age of 94 on Tuesday, 11 July, public broadcaster Czech Television reported on Wednesday, 12 July.

"Unfortunately I can confirm that Mr Milan Kundera passed away yesterday (Tuesday) after a prolonged illness," Anna Mrazova, spokesperson for the library in Brno, told Czech Television.

"He died at home, in his Paris apartment," she added.

Kundera was best-known for his varied styles of writing, which depicted themes and characters that portrayed a wide range of emotions – from the mundane reality of everyday life to a larger-than-life persona.

Kundera was born on 1 April, 1929 in the Czech city of Brno but emigrated to France in 1975 after he was ostracised for criticising the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the then Soviet Union.

He was known to be a contender for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature, but was never bestowed with it.

In 1967, the author received immense fame for the publication of his novel The Joke, which spoke of the story of a young man who was expelled from both his university and the Communist Party due to an innocent joke.

However, his best work is considered to be The Unbearable Lightness of Being, published in 1984, which speaks of the lives of two women, two men, and a dog during the 1968 Prague Spring.