Kundera interrogates whether lightness or weight is the appropriate response to the human condition, using the 1968 Prague Spring as backdrop for love, freedom, and betrayal. Published in 1984, it became the most passionately discussed philosophical novel of the late 20th century. Readers still argue about whether Tereza or Sabina represents the better life.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.