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The Unbearable Lightness of Being: 'A dark and brilliant achievement' (Ian McEwan) Paperback – 21 Aug. 2000

by Milan Kundera (Author), Michael Henry Heim (Translator)

4.2 4,880 ratings

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40th anniversary edition of the bestselling modern classic: Milan Kundera's iconic novel of love and politics in communist Czechoslovakia.

'Shamelessly clever ... Exhilaratingly subversive and funny.' Independent
'A modern classic ... As relevant now as when it was first published. ' John Banville

A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon: a man torn between his love for her and his womanising. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals, while her other lover stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by choices and events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance and weight - and we feel 'the unbearable lightness of being'.

Kundera's classic provoked a whole generation, encompassing passion and philosophy, body and soul, the Prague Spring and modern America, political acts and private desires, comedy and tragedy - in fact, all of human existence.

What readers are saying:
'Some books change your mind, some change your heart, the very best change your whole world ... A mighty piece of work, that will shape your life forever.'

'One of the best books I've ever read ... A book about love and life, full of surprises. Beautiful.'

'This book is going to change your life ... It definitely leaves you with a hangover after you're done reading.'

'Kundera writes about love as if in a trance so the beauty of it is enchanting and dreamy ... Will stay with you.'

From the Publisher

Product description

Book Description

40th anniversary edition of the bestselling modern classic: Milan Kundera's iconic novel of love and politics in communist Czechoslovakia.

From the Back Cover

Offers a wide range of philosophical speculations and it descants on a variety of styles. This book draws together the Czechoslovakia of the Prague Spring and the Russian invasion, the philosophy of Nietzsche, and the love affairs of a number of heartbreakingly familiar characters.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0571135390
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber; Main - Re-issue edition (21 Aug. 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780571135394
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571135394
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.8 x 2.3 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 4,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 17 in Love Poetry (Books)
- 25 in Regional & Cultural Poetry
- 25 in Classical, Early & Medieval Poetry

Customer reviews:
4.2 4,880 ratings

About the authors

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Milan Kundera
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Milan Kundera, born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, was a student when the Czech Communist regime was established in 1948, and later worked as a labourer, jazz musician and professor at the Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Prague. After the Russian invasion in August 1968, his books were proscribed. In 1975, he and his wife settled in France, and in 1981, he became a French citizen. He is the author of the novels The Joke, Life is Elsewhere, Farewell Waltz, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Immortality, and of the short-story collection Laughable Loves - all originally in Czech. His most recent novels, Slowness, Identity and Ignorance, as well as his non-fiction works The Art of the Novel and Testaments Betrayed, were originally written in French.
Photo by Elisa Cabot (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Michael Henry Heim
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Michael Henry Heim (January 21, 1943 – September 29, 2012) was a Professor of Slavic Languages at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He was an active and prolific translator, and was fluent in Czech, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, French, Italian, German, and Dutch. He died on September 29, 2012, of complications from melanoma.
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Customer reviews

4,880 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book entertaining and thought-provoking. They praise the writing quality as beautiful and poetic. Many consider it a good value and lasting book. However, some feel the characters lack development and are overly sexualized. Opinions differ on the story quality, with some finding it nice and beautiful, while others mention there is no clear plot line. There are mixed views on the pacing, with some finding it nuanced and pleasurable, while others find it tedious and hard-going at times.

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Readability Thought provoking Writing quality Value for money Story quality Pacing Character development

52 customers mention ‘Readability’52 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find it brilliant, serious, and entertaining. The story is told beautifully, and the ending is effective. Readers appreciate the discussion and exploration of human relationships and emotions. However, some find the book interesting but confusing at times.

"...I enjoyed the discussion and exploration of human relationships and emotions but I felt the sections attempting to link politics to the plotlines..." Read more

"This book is a must read. I came across it during my uni days and fell in love with it instantly...." Read more

"...the philosophical musings hit home and the final part of the book is heart-breakingly effective...." Read more

"In this interesting but confusing book, Milan Kundera mixes too many themes and genres, including..." Read more

33 customers mention ‘Thought provoking’28 positive5 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and well-written. They appreciate the original existentialist perspective and poignant, emotional writing style. The content is enlightening and explores human relationships and emotions in depth.

"Excellent insight into human condition explored with polyamory, communism, war, career and religion as backdrop. Well translated too. Will read again" Read more

"...this book which illustrate the beauty of life and its attachments to other humans and animals (such as Karenin and Tereza's storyline) and also it..." Read more

"...It is very poignant, emotive; and written in both a stunning and poetic way...." Read more

"...good stuff: it's easy to read, there are times when the philosophical musings hit home and the final part of the book is heart-breakingly..." Read more

29 customers mention ‘Writing quality’27 positive2 negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book excellent. They praise the beautiful language and emotional descriptions. The book is described as a thoughtful read that is easy to read.

"...Well translated too. Will read again" Read more

"...Highly recommended as thoughtful read, it's one of those books that I wish I could sit and discuss with someone to find out what they took from..." Read more

"...It is very poignant, emotive; and written in both a stunning and poetic way...." Read more

"...The good stuff: it's easy to read, there are times when the philosophical musings hit home and the final part of the book is heart-breakingly..." Read more

5 customers mention ‘Value for money’5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's value for money. They find it inexpensive and a good book that will last.

"...It was as I would have expected for the price.Good value. ." Read more

"Great item description, Great value and along with fast shipping! Highly recommended seller!! : )" Read more

"Excellent book at a great price." Read more

"Good price, came the next day, cannot get in to it" Read more

8 customers mention ‘Story quality’5 positive3 negative

Customers have different views on the story quality. Some find it nice and beautiful, while others feel there is no clear plot line and the timelines are inconsistent.

"It is a Nice story but I did not like this translation somehow." Read more

"...There is no clear plot line as Kundera jumps back and forth in timelines of events he wants to discuss...." Read more

"One of the best books I have ever read. Kundera has an interesting way of combining the story, with background information such as discussions of..." Read more

"Intense story, finally got to read it." Read more

6 customers mention ‘Pacing’2 positive4 negative

Customers have differing views on the pacing. Some find it nuanced, pleasurable, and strange. Others feel it's tedious and repetitive, with hard-to-understand first few pages.

"...as you need to think about what's being said and at times it felt a little hard-going...." Read more

"strange, deep, riveting, poignant!" Read more

"...for the first time at the age of 19 and I found even the first few pages impenetrable...." Read more

"Tedious and repetitive self absorption. I saw it through but frankly feel that life and literature has more to offer than this pretentious 'novel'." Read more

5 customers mention ‘Character development’0 positive5 negative

Customers find the characters lack development and are obsessed with sex. They describe the main character as hypersexual and misogynistic.

"...3 His characters are obsessed with sex...." Read more

"...but soon diverges to discuss other topics with very little character development...." Read more

"...forced and does not fit with the main story of the hypersexual nature of the lead character, Tomas, (miss described in my view as misogynist) and..." Read more

"...I found it hard going as well, a bit pretentious and hard to engage with the characters, although I appreciated that it was beautifully written...." Read more

Top reviews from United Kingdom

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Pavan Palety
Good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2025
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Excellent insight into human condition explored with polyamory, communism, war, career and religion as backdrop. Well translated too. Will read again

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El
Interesting and thought-provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 November 2022
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There are some really touching bits within this book which illustrate the beauty of life and its attachments to other humans and animals (such as Karenin and Tereza's storyline) and also it makes some very pertinent observations and reflections of human relationships. However, I also felt that this is a book which tries to paint itself as intellectual but when you pulled back the veneer it was really a lot of words to make some quite simple points. It was a thought-provoking read, it's definitely not a book that you can sit and read in long stints as you need to think about what's being said and at times it felt a little hard-going.

The book made some really interesting points with regards to adult relationships and human life in general, where the book excelled was in it's observations of human action and connection such as;
* Compassion being likened to being an emotional telepathy.
* The description of characters in books being an extension of the author which goes beyond the realm of the 'I'' (that which they cannot or don't wish to express in real life).
* Vertigo as the human desire to destroy everything and leave yourself with nothing (lightness).
* Love as an accumulation of chance coincidences with two possible viewpoints - choosing to see the coincidences as just that or adding meaning to them because we want them to exist and in doing so we are choosing to see the beauty of the world.

Whilst reading I felt the book tried to take the complex matter of human relationships and reduce it down to neat boxes of the separate ways that men and women think and feel but upon trying to write this review it is possible to see that there was a lot of complexity in the writing. On the surface the book presents men and women as stereotypes; women as subservient and on a quest for deeper meaning and heavy love (heaviness) and men as philanderers who want as little emotional connection as possible (lightness). This can be seen with Tereza where she looked to Tomas to give her meaning and soul and wanted him to treat her as more than just a body, and Tomas in return treated her as a body the same as all the other women he slept with. However if you look a bit further more reflections can be made - is the story of Tereza and Tomas the tale of two people ultimately unsuitable for each other who stay together for no obvious reason? Tomas made Tereza feel weak through his repeated cheating but felt he couldn't leave her because he was the one who had made her feel weak, in turn Tereza felt insecure and needed Tomas to continually prove his love to her, which he did but in turn it made him feel weak. Or is this a story of the depth and lightness that flows through all relationships? Some people seek meaning and heaviness through reliance, gestures and words whereas others seek a sense of ease, comfortableness and independence.

I enjoyed the discussion and exploration of human relationships and emotions but I felt the sections attempting to link politics to the plotlines were too much of a juxtaposition and took away from the flow of the book although I do understand why this plotline was included as it allowed for additional observations around politics and human action to be put forward. This narrative allowed for conveying the point that all humans are more similar than we are different and the tiny differences between us being what makes us who we are and additionally it allowed for some interesting observations around the importance of integrity and staying true to yourself and also the belief that lacking knowledge and blindly following instructions without knowing the implications or consequences is no excuse.

On a total side note I have found a fair bit of humour in the contrast between description of 'Kitsch' within this book being the ideal that we force upon something/what we want it to be rather than what it actually is and the way it is currently used by many businesses in modern life to describe things.

Highly recommended as thoughtful read, it's one of those books that I wish I could sit and discuss with someone to find out what they took from reading it.

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23 people found this helpful

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OAN
A very harrowing but beautiful book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 April 2022
Verified Purchase
This book is a must read. I came across it during my uni days and fell in love with it instantly. It is very poignant, emotive; and written in both a stunning and poetic way. I first had in on my ipad but that has since disintegrated - as apple products tend to so I had to get a physical copy. Which by the way, is as good as new.
Bracing myself for a second read as the first time I read it (albeit not to the end) it made me cry!

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3 people found this helpful

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Luke Dennison
Not sure how I feel about this
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2022
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I have very mixed feelings about this book.

Overall, this book has strong ratings on Goodreads but it seems to be a love it or loath it affair.

Me, I think I liked it or loathed it at different times whilst reading it.

The good stuff: it's easy to read, there are times when the philosophical musings hit home and the final part of the book is heart-breakingly effective.

However, it is also meandering with no set structure, flitting about all over the place. Some of its philosophical musings are either nonsensical or confused. Worst of all, I can take the misogynistic main character Tomaz but not the fact that Kumdera seems so sympathetic to him, he even seems to suggest the character is autobiographical and that I cannot stomach.

Overall, a mixed bag for me but I think I enjoyed it some of the time.

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12 people found this helpful

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acompton
Stays with you
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2024
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I was just going through old Amazon order hsitory and this was a book I read back in 2007, but just wanted to write a review as when going through 20 years of book orders it's one of the ones that really stood out the most. A bit strange as it's in many ways a simple story at its core, but with so much imbedded within it, and told so beautifully and with such emotion. Would highly recommend.

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8 people found this helpful

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RiCCi DC
Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 April 2024
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Saw the movie many years ago and decided to revisit the book was not disappointed at all. The book is all about what is lacking in today's paperbacks.

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3 people found this helpful

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Geoff Crocker
A confusion of superficial accounts
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 May 2020
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In this interesting but confusing book, Milan Kundera mixes too many themes and genres, including

1 A passing but devastating account of the 1968 Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia, now Czechia, the repressive nature of the Soviet Union, the compliance of its newly recruited agents, the pervasive reach of its regime, communism’s distortion of human life, including in Vietnam.

2 Sprinklings of philosophy which are stated unargued and unexamined. The vast array of philosophers Kundera cites deserve more than walk-on parts. Kundera seems to focus on the transience of life, which he too easily assumes translates into its insignificance.

3 His characters are obsessed with sex. Although in the English translation, sex is rendered as ‘making love’, Kundera in fact marginalises the metaphysic of love within the physicality of sex. Sex appears rather as irresistible mechanical urge, obsession, dominance, control, weaponised by threat of exposure. A skilled surgeon, an intellectual academic, an artist, are all driven by their sex urge. This is not a holistic account of humanity, either ethically, or empirically.

Kundera writes well, so a deeper treatment of any of these themes might prove more satisfying.

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30 people found this helpful

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Dylan35
Change your life
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 January 2015
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Some books change your mind, some change your heart, the very best change your whole world. This is beautiful, lyrical, comedic, sensual, and highly memorable. Much has been written about this, perhaps Kundera's masterpiece, and all of it justifiable. A mighty piece of work, that will shape your life for ever more.

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16 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Yuan
Good kindle book, will order more.
Reviewed in Canada on 14 February 2025
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Famous story, and good to order it's kindle edition. Hopefully we will have more kindle books for us.

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P.Gonzaga
An all-time Classic
Reviewed in Brazil on 15 November 2021
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A favorite of the 80’s. Alter 30 years of my first reading, It’s even better now. A Classic. A must read!!

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Mom’s purchases
A Fine Romantic Czech story.
Reviewed in India on 1 January 2025
Verified Purchase
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
It is a sensual love story about a divorced Chech surgeon, Tomas, and a charming and attractive waitress, Tereza. The story is set during the crisis when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968, and the Russians started spying and terrorising the elites and educated masses. Mr Kundera has beautifully illustrated the fundamental distinction between true love or Romance and physical desire or sex.
Another interesting part of this book is the other characters: Sabina, an ex-mistress of Tomas and Franz, a lover of Sabina, and a female dog, Kerenin, which the author weaves perfectly and skillfully.
The end of the story was very touchy and romantic.
I don't understand why the author has to explain the philosophy of the characters' thoughts and deeds. He should have left it open for the readers to scrutinise.
I felt Mr Kundera was already mentally prepared to impose his ideology on his readers.
It was like an overenthusiastic newly recruited professor coming to the postgraduate class and starting to explain the complexities without even questioning the students.
Overall, it is a fantastic read.
Five stars.
Dr Brij Mohan.
Author-Second Innings.

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Mom’s purchases

A Fine Romantic Czech story.

Reviewed in India on 1 January 2025
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
It is a sensual love story about a divorced Chech surgeon, Tomas, and a charming and attractive waitress, Tereza. The story is set during the crisis when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968, and the Russians started spying and terrorising the elites and educated masses. Mr Kundera has beautifully illustrated the fundamental distinction between true love or Romance and physical desire or sex.
Another interesting part of this book is the other characters: Sabina, an ex-mistress of Tomas and Franz, a lover of Sabina, and a female dog, Kerenin, which the author weaves perfectly and skillfully.
The end of the story was very touchy and romantic.
I don't understand why the author has to explain the philosophy of the characters' thoughts and deeds. He should have left it open for the readers to scrutinise.
I felt Mr Kundera was already mentally prepared to impose his ideology on his readers.
It was like an overenthusiastic newly recruited professor coming to the postgraduate class and starting to explain the complexities without even questioning the students.
Overall, it is a fantastic read.
Five stars.
Dr Brij Mohan.
Author-Second Innings.

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Amazon Customer
Heavy theme but readable
Reviewed in the Netherlands on 15 February 2024
Verified Purchase
All the characters are pretty much unrelatable but I enjoyed how the characters age and transition to the next stage of their lives.

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Rachel Pearlman
A must-read
Reviewed in Germany on 14 September 2023
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Enriching read!
Nurturing food4thought!!!

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being: 'A dark and brilliant achievement' (Ian McEwan) Paperback – 21 Aug. 2000

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Milan Kundera

Michael Henry Heim

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5.0 out of 5 stars Good kindle book, will order more.

5.0 out of 5 stars An all-time Classic

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Romantic Czech story.

A Fine Romantic Czech story.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Heavy theme but readable

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read

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Good kindle book, will order more.

An all-time Classic

A Fine Romantic Czech story.

Heavy theme but readable

A must-read