“(Czech title Nesmesitna lekhost byti). A novel (1984) of the magic realism school by Milan Kundera (b. 1929). The fates of two couples are played out against a background of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. In such circumstances, there is an unbearable foreboding even when the ‘sweet lightness of being’ rises ‘out of the depths of the future.’ A film version (1987) was directed by Philip Kaufman.”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.