The Curtain

“An elegant, personalized integration of anecdote, analysis, scholarship, memory and speculation. . . . Not since Henry James, perhaps, has a fiction writer examined the process of writing with such insight, authority and range of reference and allusion. . . Kundera’s opinions, reflections, memories and desires are well worth listening to.” — New York Times Book Review

“A work of sophisticated literary cartography. . . agreeably studded with insights.” — Wall Street Journal

“Essential reading in a long history of debates about the genre. . . . Wise, deep, and witty.” — New York Review of Books

“Kundera…argues brilliantly…Discarding chronology, [he] lets us witness the inner workings of his....wonderful reader’s mind.” — Cecile Alduy, San Francisco Chronicle

“As the French expression goes, Kundera always gives you furiously to think…[He] writes…with passion.” — Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

“Lovely, meandering observations on the genre to which he has consecrated his life. . . . Like good love stories, it pulls you in.” — Philadelphia Inquirer

“Kundera offers witty and edifying improvisations on…favorite themes…Anyone interested in the novel will delight in this book.” — Alec Solomita, New York Sun

“Well-worth reading. . . witty and brisk and very smart, like all of [Kundera’s] writing.” — William Deresiewicz, The Nation

“A swiftly told, beautifully crafted, pleasurable. . . scrutiny of the novel. . . . To Mr. Kundera, the novel is a liberating force.” — The Economist

“Bursting at the seams with ideas. . . Kundera dashes irrepressibly around his own studio. . . to consistently fascinating effect. A rare pleasure.” — Steven Poole, New Statesman

“Kundera is assuredly one of the great living writers. . . . This is a remarkable book. . . . Absorbing and sometimes sublime.” — Buffalo News

“Brilliant, vehement, learned and wise…Stimulating and provocative…THE CURTAIN raises essential questions.” — Salon.com

“Kundera’s essay so perfectly distilles an approach to art that it realigns the way an art form is understood.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Evocative...Kundera marvelously conducts us on a journey through the history of the novel.” — Library Journal