Jana Beranová crafts poetry and prose, recognized also for her translations of novels by Milan Kundera and many Czech poets. Recurring themes in her writing explore fragility and society, alongside the enduring beauty of nature. She frequently collaborates with visual artists and musicians. Her dedication to literature has been acknowledged, and she has served as a city poet.
Pokud by mi na začátku semestru kdokoli řekl, jaké zvraty mě čekají, ťukala bych si na čelo a poslala bych dotyčného na léčení. Nikdy jsem nevěřila na nadpřirozeno, magii, minulé životy či osudovou lásku. Teď na jeho konci se na to dívám o dost jinak... Mikkaela a Seth. Dvě dávné duše. Může existovat láska tak silná, aby přestála i smrt? A poslání natolik důležité, že přetrvá věky?
Někdy vám do života vstoupí správné věci v nesprávnou dobu. Vrátil jsem se po letech, abych nalezl peklo i ráj. Přišel jsem o všechno, co jsem kdy znal. Ale uprostřed té temnoty jsem našel ji – světlo, které mě vede na mé cestě ke spravedlnosti, jež mne drží naživu v boji o pravdu a je mou nadějí, že ještě není vše ztraceno a i já mám své právo na štěstí. *** Roky jsem snila o svém spřízněném druhovi a pak se objevil on: silný, odvážný… a zlomený. S každým jeho pohledem i dotekem jsem věděla, že mu patří mé srdce. Jenže milovat někoho, kdo nosí takové jizvy, znamená čelit temnotě, která obklopuje nás oba. Ovšem láska, skutečná láska, je silnější než bolest a nespravedlnost – nebo v to alespoň musím věřit.
Out of print since 1987, "Life Is Elsewhere" is available again in an outstanding new translation. Kundera's epic of adolescence tenderly erodes such sacrosanct values as childhood, motherhood, revolution, and even poetry, in a "remarkable portrait of an artist as a young man" ("Newsweek").
This is the first novel by the author of Immortality, which won The Independent Award for Foreign Fiction in 1991. Milan Kundera is also the author of The Book of Laughter and Fogetting.
Milan Kundera is a master of graceful illusion and illuminating surprise. In one of these stories a young man and his girlfriend pretend that she is a stranger he picked up on the road--only to become strangers to each other in reality as their game proceeds. In another a teacher fakes piety in order to seduce a devout girl, then jilts her and yearns for God. In yet another girls wait in bars, on beaches, and on station platforms for the same lover, a middle-aged Don Juan who has gone home to his wife. Games, fantasies, and schemes abound in all the stories while different characters react in varying ways to the sudden release of erotic impulses.
In The Unbearable Lightness of Being , Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.
In a Bohemian spa, eight characters dance to the rhythm of a waltz that grows increasingly frenetic: the beautiful nurse Rosa, who tries to force her lover into marriage through an alleged paternity; Klima, the jazz musician who loves his wife Kamila, plagued by jealousy; Franta, Rosa's admirer and the true father of her unborn child; Dr. Skreta, an extravagant gynecologist; Bertlef, a wealthy American who indulges in love and art out of fear of death; Jakub, a political prisoner released from jail, embarking on a journey to the West; and Olga, Jakub's foster daughter, whom he unexpectedly falls for. Each character seeks to find meaning in their lives through desperate and ever-changing pairings, navigating the absurdities and complexities of love, identity, and existence.
