Milan Kundera's sixth novel springs from a casual gesture of a woman to her swimming instructor, a gesture that creates a character in the mind of a writer named Kundera.

Like Flaubert's Emma or Tolstoy's Anna, Kundera's Agnes becomes an object of fascination, of indefinable longing. From that character springs a novel, a gesture of the imagination that both embodies and articulates Milan Kundera's supreme mastery of the novel and its purpose; to explore thoroughly the great, themes of existence.

"Brilliantly mordant...beautifully translated...strong and mesmerizing."- New York Times

"Ingenious witty provocative and formidably intelligent, both a pleasure and a challenge to the reader." -Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

"Inspired Kundera's most brilliantly imagined novel...A book that entrances, beguiles and charms us from first page to last." - Susan Miron, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Inspired Kundera's most brilliantly imagined novel...A book that entrances, beguiles and charms us from first page to last." - Susan Miron, Cleveland Plain Dealer