Kundera's novel was banned in Czechoslovakia but accalaimed in France and the United States. The story takes a comic but chilling look at the peaceful, self-contained world of a fertility spa, which becomes the setting for a compelling psychological drama when famous jazz trumpeter Klima receives a telephone call telling him that health-resort nurse Ruzena is pregnant, following a night with him. As he tries to persuade Ruzena to have an abortion other lives are drawn into their delicate conflict. The resulting ironies are very funny, and as the story moves towards its denouement, the unsparing clarity of Kundera's insight and the countless twists of his narrative illuminate the ambiguity at the core of life and the intricate strategies by which we live.
- ISBN10 0140119051
- ISBN13 9780140119053
- Publish Date 31 December 1987 (first published 1 January 1976)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 12 August 2010
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
- Format Paperback
- Language English