Life is Elsewhere

Befriend a budding poet and his adoring mother in this seductive early novel - winner of the Prix Médicis - by the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

'An artist, clearly one of the greatest to be found anywhere.' Salman Rushdie

'Kundera's achievement has been to bring both private life and political life into one comic framework.' Ian McEwan



Young Jaromil knows he is special; in fact, he is a poet bestowed with literary genius, heir to Rimbaud. He knows this because his adoring mother told him so.



Adult Jaromil, still revelling in these truths, draws on his talents to find romance whilst making his mark on the world through both his poetry and advancing the Communist revolution.



Son, Poet, Lover. In which of these roles does Jaromil's true existence lie?



A blazingly satirical reflection on the 'lyrical age' of youthful innocence, this ironic epic of adolescence showcases Kundera's savage yet tender wit at its finest.



The French-Czech novelist Milan Kundera was born in the Czech Republic and has lived in France since 1975. He died in Paris in 2023.