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Biography
Milan Kundera (1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a writer of Czech origin who lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in both Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; these therefore are not considered translations but original works. His books were banned by the Communist regimes of Czechoslovakia until the downfall of the regime in the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Awards & recognition
- Golden Order of Merit · 2021
- Franz Kafka Prize · 2020
- The prize of the BNF · 2012
- honorary citizen of Brno · 2009
- Prix mondial Cino Del Duca · 2009
Show all 22 awards →
- Czech State Award — Literature · 2007
- City of Brno Award · 2004
- Herder Prize · 2000
- Czech Medal of Merit, 1st class · 1995
- Jaroslav Seifert Prize · 1994
- “Today” Prize · 1993
- Vilenica Prize · 1992
- Knight of the Legion of Honour · 1990
- Austrian State Prize — European Literature · 1987
- Nelly Sachs Prize · 1987
- Prix de la critique · 1987
- Jerusalem Prize · 1985
- honorary doctor of the University of Michigan · 1983
- Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service · 1981
- Mondello Prize · 1978
- Prix Médicis étranger · 1973
- Klement Gottwald State Prize · 1964
