of existence

Rarely has history proved anyone so right. When Milan Kundera opened the writers’ congress in Prague in 1967, he embodied the country’s cultural elite and was inspired by the liberal socialism of the Prague Spring. Kundera’s father was a recognized, ambitious musician, the son wrote poetry at an early age and became a lecturer at the Prague Film School – a creative family to show off in the good times. When the Soviet Union invaded the country in the summer of the following year, the end of the writer Kundera, who refused to adapt to the new authoritarian realities, was to be heralded.