Identity

First UK edition. 8vo. Pp. [iv], 153. Beige paper-covered boards, lettered in black to spine. Jacket illustration by Andrzej Klimowski (priced £12.99 to front flap).

Translated from the French by Linda Asher. Originally published in 1997 under the title L'identité, by Éditions Gallimard.

After settling in France in 1975, Kundera dramatically revised his earlier Czech output – and since 1990 started composing directly into French – to the extent that the French editions are now regarded by the author as the authorised texts. Since 1987 all his books published by Gallimard bear the note: entièrement revue par l'auteur, a la même valeur d'authenticité que le texte tchèque (entirely reviewed by the author, having the same value of authenticity as the Czech text).

An exploration of the shifting sands of identity in a fugue-like novel of 51 sparse, tiny chapters by the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. "[A] penetrating meditation on the mystery of identity." –Laura Cumming, The Guardian