<p><b>An invigorating pair of essays exploring exile, language and national identity </b><b>from one of Europe's most celebrated literary stars, the author of <i>The Unbearable Lightness of Being.</i></b><br /><br /><i>89 Words,</i> published in 1985, is an expanded version of the dictionary of sorts that readers encountered in <i>The Art of the Novel,</i> and comprises a fascinating and rigorous interrogation of what exile, life in another language, and the betrayals of translations entail.<br /><br /><i>Prague, A Disappearing Poem</i>, 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<i> Kidnapped West</i> - questions of the Soviet and Western attitudes to Czech culture.<br /><br />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.</p&gt;