Died at the age of 94 on July 11, 2023 in his Parisian apartment, the writer wanted to be buried in his hometown of Brno. His wife Véra had kept the urn containing his ashes until she died last September.
The ashes of Milan Kundera and his wife Vera, who died in 2023 and 2024 in France where they had lived since their exile from Czechoslovakia in 1975, were repatriated to Brno, the writer’s hometown, the Moravian Library said. “Vera and Milan Kundera, who lived in France since 1975, symbolically returned to Brno”this library located in the city in the southeast of the Czech Republic said in a press release.
Milan Kundera, known in particular for The joke or The unbearable lightness of beingdied at the age of 94 on July 11, 2023 in his Parisian apartment. He wanted to be buried in his hometown. His wife Véra had kept the urn containing his ashes at her home until she died last September.
A competition launched to design the writer’s tomb
Publisher Antoine Gallimard and Czech Ambassador to France Michel Fleischmann brought the two ballot boxes to Brno last week. “Both urns are now in Brno and will be placed in the grave when it is ready”indicated Tomas Kubicek, the director of the library. Brno City Hall launched an architectural competition to design the writer’s tomb last year, and plans to complete the work in mid-2025.
Milan Kundera acquired French nationality in 1981, after the couple fled communist Czechoslovakia in 1975. Born in Brno in 1929, Milan Kundera was one of the great authors of European literature of the 20th century. His novels question the human condition, the evolution of identity, the meaning of freedom, the coincidences of existence and even the possibility of love. His name had been frequently cited for the Nobel Prize in Literature.