Milan Kundera is a renowned author, best known for his novels such as "The Joke," "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting," and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, Kundera's life and work were significantly impacted by the political climate of his time. He was a student when the Czech Communist regime was established in 1948 and later worked various jobs, including as a laborer, jazz musician, and professor at the Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Prague.
Kundera's work is characterized by his extreme skepticism and often includes comical elements. However, his books were proscribed after the Russian invasion in August 1968. In 1975, Kundera and his wife settled in France, and he became a French citizen in 1981. Despite being a Czech-born writer, Kundera considers himself a French author and insists that his work should be studied as French literature. He writes in both Czech and French, and he personally revises the French translations of his books, which are considered original works and not translations.
Despite the Czech Communist government's attempts to censor and ban his books, they remained popular and were eventually unbanned after the downfall of the government in the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Kundera's works have been translated into several languages and have received critical acclaim worldwide. His writing style, which often explores themes of identity, memory, and the human condition, has solidified his place as a significant figure in modern literature.