Czech writer Milan Kundera dies

Czech writer Milan Kundera died on Tuesday at the age of 94. The information was confirmed by Anna Mrazova, spokeswoman for the Library named after the author of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” published in 1984. "Unfortunately I can confirm that Mr. Milan Kundera passed away yesterday, Tuesday, after a prolonged illness," Mrazova told Agence France-Presse.

The musician and writer was born in Moravia, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic), in 1929. He was the son of musicologist and pianist Ludvik Kundera, who served as director of the Brno Academy of Music until 1961. Milan Kundera studied musicology and musical composition. His wife was Vera Hrabankova, whom he married in 1967. In 1968, after the Soviet invasion of his country, his works were banned.

Milan Kundera, firm in the face of communism

In 1968, he won the Czechoslovak Writers' Union Prize. He was expelled from the Communist Party in 1970 for associating with other Czechoslovak writers, such as Pavel Kohout during the Prague Spring. He then emigrated to France, and since 1993 wrote his work in French. His first work was “The Joke,” a satire of Stalinist communism, which was translated into 21 languages. In 1981 his works led him to receive the Commonwealth Award in the United States. In the same year, he was stripped of his Czechoslovak citizenship for the publication of his novel “The Book of Laughter and Oblivion.” In 1982, he received the Europe Prize for Literature.

Kundera was a staunch critic of communism. One of his latest recognitions came on Sept. 21, 2020, when he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize. The panel emphasized that his work is a great contribution to Western culture. Despite his exile, he remained connected to his country. In 2020, he decided to donate his library and archive to the Czech Republic.