89 Words, published in 1985, is an expanded version of the dictionary of sorts that readers encountered in The Art of the Novel, and comprises a fascinating and rigorous interrogation of what exile, life in another language, and the betrayals of translations entail. Prague, A Disappearing Poem , dating from 1980, meditates on questions of the culture of the ‘small nation’ that formed and lends specificity to Kundera’s work, and – as in A Kidnapped West – questions of the Soviet and Western attitudes to Czech culture. Together, these provocative, elegant and wise essays remind familiar readers of Kundera’s presence – his inimitable voice – and for new readers, offer an introduction to his oeuvre: an access point into his fictional universe, characterised by devastating irony and subtlety of judgement.
