Milan Kundera, the Czech writer, passed away at 94, took his last breath in Paris

Czech-born French literary star, Milan Kundera took his last breath in Paris at the age of 94, confirmed Czech media.

On July 12, a spokeswoman for Gallimard, the late writer’s publisher in France, revealed that Kundera had died “after a prolonged illness”.

Anna Mrazova, the spokeswoman of the Moravian Library, which also entails Kundera’s entire archive following his donation in 2020, also added, “It’s a great loss.”

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1929, Kundera who was a former dissident, was sent into in exile in France since 1975 and later he adopted French as his primary language.

The late author was known for his two famous books on Czech-language works of fiction, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979) and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), that was based on themes of exile, memory and the difficulties of love and compassion amid the turbulent politics of 1960s and 1970s Czechoslovakia.

Milan also became an international sensation after the publication of The Unbearable Lightness of Being which was later adapted into a movie in 1988 starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin.

It is pertinent to mention that the movie was nominated for two Oscars and also earned Philip Kaufman a BAFTA win for best adapted screenplay.

To note, Milan withdrew from public life, saying he had taken “an overdose of myself” and sought “a miraculous ointment that would make me invisible.”

Back in 2009, Milan was invited to an international conference for his published work, he declined by letter, describing the event as a “necrophile party”.