The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Milan Kundera · 1929–2023 · Czechia / France

Originally Kniha Smíchu a Zapomnění (Czech)

Why it matters

Seven variations on erasure (of photographs, lovers, and countries) in the key of Czech irony. Written in exile, it cost Kundera his citizenship; 'the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.'

At a glance

A fragmented set of loosely linked variations rather than a single plot, unified by theme alone.