Milan Kundera, author of 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', passes away

Los Angeles [US], July 12 : Renowned Czech writer Milan Kundera is no more. He was 94.

As per CNN, Kundera died on Tuesday in Paris.

“Milan Kundera, a Czech-French author who is among the world’s most translated authors, died on July 11, 2023 in his Paris apartment,” the Moravian Library in Brno said in a statement.

The author of 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', Kundera was known for his witty, tragicomic tales, which were often intertwined with deep philosophical debates and satirical portrayals of life under communist oppression.

Kundera was part of an influential generation of Czech writers, filmmakers and intellectuals who came of age during the turbulent post-World War II years.

His first novel "The Joke", a work of dark humour about the one-party state published in 1967, led to a ban on his writing in Czechoslovakia while also making him famous in his homeland.

He was awarded the 1985 Jerusalem Prize, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1987 and the 2000 Herder Prize. In 2021, he was honoured with the Golden Order of Merit from the president of Slovenia.