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Renowned writer Milan Kundera passed away due to an unspecified illness in Paris on July 12, 2023, at the age of 94 years old.
A spokeswoman for Gallimard, Mr. Kundera’s publisher in France, confirmed the death, saying it came "after a prolonged illness." On hearing this news, the European Parliament held a moment of silence in his honour.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in a tweet in the Czech language, "Milan Kundera was a writer who was able to reach generations of readers across all continents with his work and achieved world fame... He left behind not only a remarkable work of fiction but also an important work of essays."
The dark novelist, Kundera, was inspired by famous writers including Franz Kafka, Martin Heidegger, and Miguel de Cervantes, among others, which was reflected in his works.
He was born on April 1, 1929. Kundera was a noted Czech-born French writer. ‘His dissident writings in communist Czechoslovakia transformed him into an exiled satirist of totalitarianism,’ as per AP. In 1975, Kundera went into exile in France and later acquired citizenship in 1981.
Kundera told author Philip Roth during an interview for The New York Times in 1980 that, "If someone had told me as a boy, One day you will see your nation vanish from the world, I would have considered it nonsense, something I couldn’t possibly imagine. A man knows he is mortal, but he takes it for granted that his nation possesses a kind of eternal life."
In the year 1989, the Velvet Revolution removed the Communists from power, and Czechoslovakia was again born as the ‘Czech Republic’. After that, Kundera had made a new identity and lived in Paris with his wife, Vera.
In June 2012, Kundera expressed his fears regarding the future of literature in a speech to the French National Library. He had said in the speech, "It seems to me that time, which continues its march pitilessly, is beginning to endanger books. It’s because of this anguish that, for several years now, I have had in all my contracts a clause stipulating that they must be published only in the traditional form of a book and that they be read only on paper and not on a screen. People walk in the street; they no longer have contact with those around them; they don’t even see the homes they pass; they have wires hanging from their ears. They gesticulate, as they should; they look at no one, and no one looks at them. I ask myself, Do they even read books anymore? It’s possible, but for how much longer?"
Milan Kundera was often considered a candidate for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature. However, he never got the prize throughout his life.
In expressing their condolences, the Booker Prizes tweeted, "We are saddened to hear of the death of Milan Kundera. Kundera was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2005 and was known for his philosophical yet playful novels. Our thoughts are with his family and friends."
