The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel

Written by Milan Kundera

Narrated by Richmond Hoxie

When The Unbearable Lightness of Being was first published in English, it was hailed as ""a work of the boldest mastery, originality, and richness"" by critic Elizabeth Hardwick and named one of the best books of 1984 by the New York Times Book Review. It went on to win the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and quickly became an international bestseller. Twenty years later, the novel has established itself as a modern classic. To commemorate the anniversary of its first English-language publication, HarperCollins is proud to offer a special hardcover edition.

A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover -- these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel.

Controlled by day, Tereza's jealousy awakens by night, transformed into ineffably sad death-dreams, while Tomas, a successful surgeon, alternates loving devotion to the dependent Tereza with the ardent pursuit of other women. Sabina, an independent, free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals -- of parents, husband, country, love itself -- whereas her lover, the intellectual Franz, loses all because of his earnest goodness and fidelity.

In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence we feel, says the novelist, ""the unbearable lightness of being"" -- not only as the consequence of our private acts but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.

This magnificent novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy, and embraces, it seems, all aspects of human existence. It juxtaposes geographically distant places (Prague, Geneva, Paris, Thailand, the United States, a forlorn Bohemian village); brilliant and playful reflections (on ""eternal return,"" on kitsch, on man and animals -- Tomas and Tereza have a beloved doe named Karenin); and a variety of styles (from the farcical to the elegiac) to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world's truly great writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: May 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9780062215529

Milan Kundera

The Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kundera (1929 - 2023) was born in Brno and lived in France, his second homeland, since 1975. He is the author of the novels The Joke, Life Is Elsewhere, Farewell Waltz, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Immortality, and the short story collection Laughable Loves—all originally in Czech. His later novels, Slowness, Identity, Ignorance, and The Festival of Insignificance, as well as his nonfiction works, The Art of the Novel, Testaments Betrayed, The Curtain, and Encounter, were originally written in French.

Reviews for The Unbearable Lightness of Being

[kbullfrog · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazing book of great significance in my life, the rhythm, tragedy, and passion resonate through every page.

[imperfectcj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed the interlocking stories in this book. Not quite sure how I feel about the author's intrusions or about the entire section devoted to a discussion of excrement vs kitsch, although I do appreciate the point he was making. And the scene with the doctors trying to get across to Cambodia was incredible. One of those times I cringe a little at being American (what an awful thing to say on the 4th of July!).

[vanessajr-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Read a long time ago but remember nothing...must reread

[bookishjojo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting philosophic novel...still processing the read.

[kirstiecat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a recently re-read for me. It may be difficult to at first get how powerful this book really is. It questions many things-the idea of personal and political integrity, of the role of photography when it can be turned so easily into propaganda, and of the similarities in all life's Grand Marches...streams of blind nationalism can be an infectious disease whether in a state of communism or democracy. I liked these parallels and the examination of kitsch and at the same time loved all of the characters...who battle with the sense of lightness and vertigo in the world especially Tereza. It had a perfect ending too...almost recalling the universal appeal of a Hemingway or Graham Greene.

[h_d_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to give this three stars because I hated it three pages in and hated it all the way to the middle of the book. But then I found myself stopping just to ponder on some of the stuff in the book and it really is quite an interesting and insightful read even when it's irritating. It's not a pleasurable read, but it's full of food for thought with some great moments of humour. Much kudos to the author for writing a book where I started off disliking the main characters intensely and ended up feeling rather moved.

Not one of my favourite books, but well worth reading.

Still three stars though...

[melanielgarrett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the books I return to every few years, and get more out of it each time. Like everything I've read of Kundera's it's a joy and a revelation.

[Roger · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I know this is a critically acclaimed book, and the author has novel insights into communism, but there is no plot. It is mostly just a dry narration of the inner thoughts of a bunch of self-obsessed Czech intellectuals. I did not become invested in the characters, which is good, because nothing happened to them. So boring - no reason to turn the page.

[Scott Carter · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The opening statements of the book are ridiculously racist. Then it goes on to laud the French Revolution by comparison to African history.

[angelalam-300700 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fabulous book on love, life, politics, and sex written with such beautiful language.

[mbmackay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Different, lyrical & masterfully written - but falls short of the greatness often bestowed on it.Read Sept 2004

[profh-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Flawless. One of the five best books I’ve ever read. It changed my life. What else can I say...

[thelostentwife · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

About half-way through this book I had an abrupt change of opinion. When I began the book I was captivated by the language, the ideas, the ways my imagination was being sparked (and no, I'm not talking about the raunchy scenes - even though there were oh so many of them. ugh) and the gradual unfolding of the lives of the two couples involved in the story.But then I started to get depressed. And then even more depressed. Soon I dreaded picking up the book and I wondered how in the world I could have gone to loving the book to dreading it so much.I thought I understood what Milan Kundera was saying (even though I readily admit to much of it just going right over my head), but I think I got an idea. I understand what he's talking about when mentioning the "Unbearable Lightness of Being" - or at least I think I do. What I don't understand is why there couldn't be just one character we could fall in love with, just one! Instead, I felt as if he approached this in a clinical, hands-off manner as if saying, "Sure I thought them up, but now they are your responsibility!".I've never read a book that's flipped me from one side to the other like this, so it's a new experience for me and one I'm hoping to not have happen again anytime soon. I haven't given up on Kundera though and do plan to check his other works out. I just hope I will end them able to at least smile instead of feeling as if I should tear up the book and cry crocodile tears on its corpse.

[xirxe · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Als Liebesgeschichte wird dieses Buch beschrieben, es gilt das glaubhafteste Liebespaar der modernen Literatur zu entdecken - doch um ehrlich zu sein, empfand ich genau das viel eher als Randgeschichte. Teresa und Tomas sind die Hauptfiguren in diesem Roman und man folgt ihrer zeitweise recht schwierigen Beziehung durch die Zeit. Tomas ist ein notorischer Fremdgänger trotz seiner Liebe zu Teresa, und daran ändert sich auch nichts, als sie die Tschechei verlassen und nach Zürich ziehen. Tomas trifft dort seine 'alte' Freundin Sabina wieder und sie und ihr späterer Geliebter Franz sind das zweite Liebespaar, von dem erzählt wird. All dies wie auch die Rückkehr von Teresa und Tomas nach Prag ereignen sich vor dem Hintergrund des Einmarsches der sowjetischen Truppen in die Tschechei.
Und genau dies ist das eigentlich Thema des Buches: Das Verhalten der Menschen zueinander und sich selbst gegenüber unter den erdrückenden Bedingungen des Lebens in einer Diktatur. Wie verändern sich die Menschen, Werte, Ideale? Kundera wechselt dazu in seinem Buch zwischen einer Art Essay, in dem verschiedene Überlegungen dargestellt werden und der 'normalen' Erzählform, mit der die Geschichten der Protagonisten wiedergegeben werden. Leider nicht chronologisch, sondern immer wieder gibt es Zeitsprünge, so dass es mir nicht gelang, den Figuren wirklich nahe zu kommen. Alles in allem hatte ich häufiger den Eindruck, eine politisch-sozial-philosophisch-psychologische Abhandlung zu lesen als einen Roman. Doch vielleicht ist dieses Buch einfach auch ein Kind seiner Zeit. Vor knapp 30 Jahren waren solche Gedanken vermutlich recht neu und die beschriebenen gesellschaftlichen Situationen hochaktuell und brisant, während sie heute weit entfernt erscheinen.
Wer also eine Liebesgeschichte zum Schmökern sucht, sollte sich eine andere Lektüre wählen.

[arctic1stranger · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kundera is a genius at bringing us into the moment, into the intimacy of the lives of others, just to discover that they dont know themselves that well, nor do they know each other, and he leaves us with the disturbing notion that we might not know ourselves as well as think we do.

[flydodofly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

with more than twenty years between two reads, I got that much more out of it this time around. life experience must have helped. I would not go as far as to say: if you are very young - do not read this book, but I would recommend re-reading it at some point.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's hard for me to write a review about this book; I hold it too close to my heart to be able to appraise it critically.I read "Lightness" over the course of about two or three days, but most of it I read in a single, extended sitting, which is unusual for me. I was in Japan at the time, and I had recently had a kind of falling-out with a girl I liked. It was a confusing time, and I needed someone to console me; Kundera was there.

[mattviews · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being explores the significance of existence and life responsibility (burdens and obligations) through characters' carefree attitude toward sex. However graphically and saliently Kundera writes about sex, the book is far from salacious and offensive.A prominent surgeon from Prague, Tomas was torn between his love Tereza whom he had met through six fortuities and his many mistresses. His failed marriage had bequeathed to him fear of responsibility and attachment. He lived a life of "lightness" through no-strings-attached "erotic friendships" which stipulated his complete withdrawal of love in his life. Portrayed as a libertine, Tomas claims he was not obsessed with women, but what in each of them was unimaginable during intimacy the thrill of the gap between an approximation of idea and precision of reality.Tereza, who throws herself into Tomas' embrace, seeks to escape from her mother all her life. In 1968, Russians invaded the country, which forced Tomas and Tereza to relocate in Zurich. When Tomas' outrageous infidelities (sexual exploits) galled her, Tereza left and returned to Prague. Realized he had no chance to evade the Communists, Tomas wrote a denouncement of the Russians that exterminated his license to practice medicine. Tomas felt much "lighter" though being a surgeon was his deep-seated desire. Tomas abased to be a window washer but continued his sexual exploits.In the meantime, one of Tomas' most favored mistresses Sabina, hit it off with a professor Franz. Out of his conscience and the volition to live in the truth, Franz divulged his affair to his wife and lived an unbearable lightness of being. On the other hand, Sabina felt the burden as her love became public.The question becomes whether this "weightness" of life is laudable or despicable. If, like Kundera has asserted in passing at the beginning, the heaviest burden is an image of life's most intense fulfillment, then women shall desire a sexual orgasm in which they are weighted down by a man's body?It's interesting to relate the notion of "weightness" to Kundera's another book, Slowness, which deals with the slowness with which pleasure (sexual pleasure perhaps?) should be attained. In an audacious statement, Kundera asserted that sexual intimacy being subdued to some obstacle to be overcome as quickly as possible in order to reach an ecstatic explosion. If such obstacle refers to the "weightness" of man that women try to get over, then the ultimate fulfillment of sex is forfeited and compromised.Another interesting notion is lightness. What is lightness? How is it unbearable? Tereza wanted to learn about "lightness" after she moved back to Prague. Some readers might have accused her of taking revenge on Tomas' infidelities, inveigling him to return to the Communist reign and thus ruining his career, while she was exploiting the lightness and insignificance of physical love. So lightness becomes a euphemism of infidelity?Political overtones and the pretentious rhetorical references to Beethoven and Nietzsche (and the obscure German phrase of which I have no knowledge) might take a native Czech to comprehend. What is it about a lack of political freedom that affects the sexual behavior of men and women I have no intention to understand. Such pretentious gestures only aggravate readers' confusion. The best way to approach this book, besides with an open mind, is to read it as is. The musings of individuals are far more appealing than Kundera's arduous attempt to psychoanalyze the characters.The different parts of the book tend to overlap a little bit, especially true for the sections on Tomas and Tereza, whose lives are closely intertwined. The section titled "The Grand March" is filled with political and rhetorical references, which leave my scalp itchy. Through a third party in Sabina, readers will find out about the end of the couple's story. So what's the hype about this book besides the explicit and unrestrained affairs?

[jculkin-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the main story, but the book on the whole felt all over the place and came off a bit pretentious. Mixed storylines told non-linearly with interruptions from the author talking directly to the reader, including comments about the story itself - ambitious and interesting but in the end disjointed. I couldn't help rolling my eyes time to time when his ramblings became deeper than deep (plenty of examples in other reviews). Still, I was interested in what he had to say, in his wide-ranging wise philosophical wisdom - a pity it felt crammed into this novel like a (kitsch) overpacked holiday suitcase.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object."The Unbearable Lightness of Being is not a straight forward tale as it features a love story as well as some philosophical musings which is apparent from the outset In fact the book opens with a philosophical discussion of lightness versus heaviness which sets the stage for the remainder of the novel.Set in 1968 in Prague, Tomas, a brilliant Prague surgeon briefly married in the past, is established as a womaniser enjoying a multitude of brief sexual adventures with a series of different women. One day he is sent to a provincial town when his boss is suffering from sciatica problems, there he meets Tereza, a café waitress. Tereza had been living in a small town dreaming of escaping it and her overbearing mother. She falls in love with Tomas instantly so when he returns to Prague she follows him. Once in the city they live together, but Tomas is unable to give up his mistresses. Tereza struggles to accept Tomas's libertine attitude towards sex, suffering from nightmares and contemplating suicide.To keep Tereza happy, Tomas marries her but he keeps his mistresses, in particular his long-term lover Sabina, a painter. The two women grow friendly and Sabina finds Tereza a job in a photography studio. However, Tereza's jealousy fails to diminish.When Soviet Army occupies the country Sabina flees to Switzerland where she is later joined by Tomas and Tereza. However, once in Zurich Tereza realizes she is jobless and must sit at home while Tomas continues with his career and having affairs, so decides to return to Prague. Tomas attempts to return to his bachelor ways but after a few days gives up and returns to Prague and Tereza. Back in Prague Tomas loses his position as a surgeon when he refuses to sign a letter praising the Communist regime and gets a job washing windows. His fame persists, however, and he continues seducing the women he works for.Tereza has an affair with a tall engineer in the hope of coming closer to Tomas's way of life but instead it only makes her even more miserable. Tomas finally realises that he cannot continue of his libertine lifestyle and agrees to move to the country with Tereza ending his sexual adventures. One night Tomas and Tereza are killed together in a driving accident.Meanwhile in Geneva, Sabina has a love affair with Franz, a university professor, but when Franz leaves his wife expecting to move in with her, Sabina abruptly leaves Switzerland initially to Paris and then America where she learns of Tomas and Tereza's deaths.Sexuality and the body are central themes of the book. Tomas loves the female form and has had sex with over 200 different women, Tereza in contrast hates her own body. Whilst Tomas and Sabina sees sex and love as being two different entities Tereza and Franz believe them to be incontrovertibly linked. Similarly, lightness and weight are also important themes. Tomas and Sabina with their liberal views are seen as being light whereas Tereza and Franz with their more conservative views are portrayed as being weighty.Overall I found this an interesting and original read mixing as it does fiction and philosophical debate but at times I found it rather banal and repetitive hence the relatively low rating.

[benkline · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic book. A terrific novel. A very smart, philosophical, metaphysical, intelligent, yet humorous in places, but always keen and aware novel and story of the lives it portrays. A great showing of how we live our lives, why we do, why we do the things we do to others, how we can and cannot choose to act to ourselves, to others, and the way in which we interact with others - especially those we love. Great characters (although I find myself more interested in Tomas/Tereza and Sabina rather than Franz) [and a great dog - Karenin; whose ending portion of the novel is possibly the best written of the novel] who come to life and you can relate to them through their treatments of each other. Ultimately it's a novel about how we hurt those we love and how we treat them - but most importantly how we treat ourselves - and thus by process how we treat others. Treating and interacting with others is a reflection upon how we treat and interact with ourself(ourselves), and the process blossoms from there out. The interactions between lovers comes down to their own abilities and disabilities and their own idiosyncrasies and psychologies and philosophies and how that all relates to their own character; and by how they perceive and receive themselves is how they receive and perceive their lovers - which ultimately is the defining characteristic of how we interact with others. There is 5 main characters to the novel (Tereza/Karenin/Tomas-Sabina-Franz) and they all correlate and intersect primarily through the infidelities of Tomas and Franz through Sabina. All five have basically a dance about their way through the world with Sabina being the link. We are given perspective on each character through that focal point; with Karenin's being dog-like and aloof yet possibly the most deep perspective of Tomas/Tereza possible.

All in all an extremely well written and well delivered novel that focuses so deeply on the highest-levels and the lowest-levels (the God/Shit chapters exceedingly puts this in perspective) and definitely highly recommended to anyone.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is basically an index of my self-loathing right now, so it's possible that this review isn't entirely objective. And I like the constant pedantic wordplay, which is endearing and not annoying, and he does manage to say some profound things about love. But what kind of plodder can't manage to say something profound about love? And the pomposity and misogyny are sort of . . . mutually repugnifying. The stuff about Karenin and treating animals right at the end touches the hears, but sooften you just get this grimy reptilian feeling, like you're reading something that was written on the toilet after five minutes of soul-searching. Still, it probably got Kundera laid. Or at least, I'm sure it got someone laid. Boo everybody. Not excluding me.

[mausergem_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a story of a doctor, a painter, a waitress and a professor. It deals with their inter twined lives. The novel deals with communism and democracy. There is jealousy, lust, anger, denial and love. This is not a novel according to me. It is just the author’s random and beautiful thoughts. The author comments that all his characters are him but they just have crossed the borders that he dare not cross.

[greeniezona · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I came very close to giving up on this book. Despite having read Kundera before and loved him, despite this book being on the bookslut 100, and fitting at least two categories on my book bingo challenge. This book shifts between the point of view of the author and four of the main characters. The first character, Tomas, I found nearly unbearable. Burned by divorce, Tomas develops a set of rules for "erotic friendships," a system that works for him until he falls in love with Tereza. His self-pitying attitude about his inability to give up these affairs despite their effects on Tereza, who he supposedly loves, made me want to hold his face under water. But then the point of view shifts to Tereza (who is also not perfect, but at least sympathetic), and it kept me from giving up.

The unbearable jerkness of Tomas aside, there was so much to this book that was wonderful. In particular, the way our personal metaphors shape our lives -- can make two people incompatible, or can make someone fall in love. If you want to just read a story, this book is not for you. If you want to think about the hows and whys of stories, how we are shaped by our past, our loves, the political situation of our surroundings in both predictable and unexpected ways, of both the importance and the triviality of these stories, then I don't know how you could not fall under the spell of this book.

I also was intrigued by the collisions between leftist-anarchism and the communist police-state, the way people were betrayed by a system they expected to make real their ideals, and how they made sense of that betrayal.

In short, Tomas bothered me enough that I couldn't give this book the full 5 stars most of my friends have, but I still found it profoundly interesting.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is acclaimed as a modern classic. If being indecipherable makes it a classic, it is indeed a true classic. I almost gave up in the first 5 minutes of listening to this wit got all philosophical about opposites, light vs dark, etc and how one is clearly positive and the other negative. What abut lightness and heaviness? which is positive and which negative? At which point my brain was crawling from my ears like cream cheese. It then launches into a story, but I'm really not sure what to make of that either. It is not strictly chronological, in that you hear of the death of two characters, then spend a fair chunk of the rest of the book finding out what they've been up to, but not hearing of their death again. It was all very confusing. It might have helped more had the characters been a bit more appealing, or sympathetic. But they weren't really. They were very wrapped up in themselves. And it doesn't even seem to make what it could of the setting, Prague before and after the takeover by the Russians. I'm quite prepared to admit that this might not be the best book to listen to. I;m quite prepared to acct that there may well be layers of meaning that simply passed me by - not being of a philosophical nature and all that. So as a story, it leave a lot to be desired, as a classic it was hard work to understand, as a book t gets nothing more than an OK. There were some wonderful passages of writing and ideas, but as a whole it left me feeling that I'd missed something.

[pescatello · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a great read. It's philosophy and story-telling is top notch. It's not a quick read but rather will give you something to think about every step of the way

[altheaann · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was the second time I'd read this book. I'd forgotten that I'd
read it before. I talked to a couple of other people about it, and we
agreed that while it is very beautifully written, it does seem to be
strangely not extremely memorable. I'm not sure why. It feels somewhat
like a dream, and the details seem to slide away like those of a dream
as well.
This is mostly a story of a love triangle involving a Czech doctor,
Tomas, his wife Tereza, and one of Tomas' mistresses, Sabine. However,
it is also a book filled with Kundera's philosophical musings on the
nature and meaning of life - is every event and action an ephemeral,
one-time event, filled with "lightness" - or is the idea of "eternal
return" the one of value, where one believes that each event reoccurs
forever, set in stone, and filled with weight?
Personally, I feel that every event does only happen once, gone as
soon as acted - and that is precisely why our actions do have meaning;
they are unique. So I wasn't much for the philosophy, really.
However, I did really find the depiction of the Czech Republic in the
60s and 70s interesting, and thought it gave a fascinating insight
into what it was like to live in that time and place.
The characters are slightly abstract, but still appealing, in a way
that reminds me of the work of Anais Nin.
I would recommend the book, but don't feel that it is as significant a
work as its reputation might indicate.

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The story begins with philosophical musings on the theme from which the book takes its title: we have only one life, so we leave no impact, no weight. This is the "unbearable lightness of being"--life is meaningless and how we act has no consequences. But there are other ways in the novel that "lightness" is also opposed to "weight:" Sexual pleasure, freedom and choice versus love, responsibility, commitment. That thread intertwines with the impact on the characters of life in the "Prague Spring" of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the aftermath of the ensuing Soviet crackdown: of heavy oppression of the totalitarian state.Tomas, the story's main protagonist, seems to be trying to live "light" in terms of personal relationships--without repetition as an unabashed libertine. He had been living by the rule of threes: if he sees a woman three times in close succession he breaks things off. Or he can have a long-term "erotic friendship," but then can only see a woman once every three weeks. But then Tereza comes into his life--and he does marry her, loves her--but can't stand the "weight" of committing fully and solely to her, which causes in her a corresponding heaviness she can't bear.The thing is Tomas only does find happiness when he acts as if his choices have weight--for him and Tereza if no one else. Tereza for her part has to live "lighter"--become more her own person, lay down psychological baggage, to find her own equilibrium. Other characters in the novel are variations on this theme of a balance between lightness and weight.It's an unusual book. The philosophical and political themes and authorial digressions intertwine intimately with the characters and plot so that at times the characters seem mere illustrations of those principles, except I did care bout Tomas and Tereza--they're more than abstractions. (And hey, their dog, Karenin, is an important character!) But there's also wit and humor to be found, often with a satiric edge, and the style, even in translation (or because of the translation), is luminous. The novel feels light, lyrical despite the heaviness of theme and non-linear narrative. I first read this novel decades ago. What I remembered of it wasn't the philosophical underpinnings though but the emotional impact the book had on me--sharp and poignant and one of those few books that have moved me to tears.

[cestovatela · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A readable, original work with a lot to say about sex, kitsch, relationships and living under Communism. Mentally, I divide the story into two parts. The first is the story of a deeply in love and deeply troubled couple. The man is simply unable to remain faithful and his girlfriend struggles to find a way to cope. The second part is the story of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia after a local attempt to liberalize the Czech government. What I like about this book is that it communicates about so many different things on so many different levels -- not only the small matters of sex, love and kitsch but also the big picture of social change, violence, oppression and repression. This is a complex work that I'd probably need to re-read several times to fully understand, but even a superficial reading leaves a deep impression. Highly recommended.

[jtp146 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyed the watching the main character develop throughout this book. Each character around him represents a different narrative that at some point influences his maturity and happiness. The author was really thoughtful to insist on a duality in each situation and emotion throughout the book.