The Unbearable Lightness of Being
First edition (French) | |
| Author | Milan Kundera |
|---|---|
| Original title | Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí |
| Language | Czech |
| Genre | Philosophical fiction |
| Publisher | Gallimard (France) 68 Publishers (Czech language) Harper & Row (US) Faber & Faber (UK) |
Publication date | 1984 (French translation) 1985 (original Czech) |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | 1984 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 393 (French 1st edition) |
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Czech: Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera about two women, two men, a dog, and their lives in the 1968 Prague Spring period of Czechoslovak history. Although written in 1982, the novel was not published until two years later, in a French translation (as L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être). The same year, it was translated to English from Czech by Michael Henry Heim and excerpts of it were published in The New Yorker. The original Czech text was published the following year.