World-renowned Czech novelist Milan Kundera dies at 94

The celebrated Czech-born writer Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has died in Paris at the age of 94. The information was confirmed by Anna Mrázová, spokeswoman for the Moravian Library in Brno.

The best-known contemporary Czech novelist in the world, Kundera was born in Brno in 1929. His first novel The Joke came out in 1967 and was made into a film the following year.

Following the crushing of the Prague Spring, Kundera was sacked from Prague’s FAMU film school. In 1975, he emigrated to France, where he gained citizenship in 1981.

The library and archive of Milan Kundera was recently transported from Paris to his home city of Brno, where it opened within the spaces of the Moravian Library in April this year on the occasion of his 94th birthday.