The site opened on April 1, the writer’s 94th birthday, decades after the author of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” left communist Czechoslovakia for France in 1975.
“It will serve above all for students and researchers, but also for all those who wish to seek a reflection on the work of Kundera”, explains Tomas Kubicek, director of the Moravian establishment which now houses the collection.
The library contains author’s copies that Kundera has received since moving to Paris.
“At present, it is a collection of about 3,000 books. This represents about two-thirds of Kundera’s work published worldwide, or 4,000 books in 51 languages,” Kubicek told the AFP.
A former communist, the freethinker Kundera gradually fell out with the Czechoslovak authorities and decided to live in exile after the crushing of the Prague Spring reform movement by armies led by the Soviet Union in 1968.
Vera Kunderova, the writer’s wife, recently told Czech radio that the idea of opening a library came to her in a dream five years ago. It was the American writer Philip Roth who gave him this idea while he slept.
“Milan was born in Brno, it’s a symbolic act, he’s coming back to Brno,” she said.
He, “he can leave (one day), but will continue to live in Brno. People will come to meet him. The house where he was born is ten minutes from the library.
Kundera himself rarely speaks to the press.
“Gossip”
After delays caused by the pandemic, last year Mr. Kubicek moved the books from Kundera’s apartment in Brno.
“I prepared everything, Tomas Kubicek simply packed up the books on the shelves in Milan and took them away,” said Ms. Kunderova.
The library houses drawings by the writer, newspaper articles about his work, but also, dating from the 16th century, the original of an essay by Montaigne signed by the author and covered with calfskin, which Kundera had received as a prize.
“There are so many things but we cannot exhibit everything. He has received a lot of prizes which are also part of the library. We would need a large room for that”, regrets Mr. Kubicek.
The library will host lectures and panel discussions, with the help of an advisory team including French playwright Yasmina Reza and Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos.
According to Kundera’s critics, since his exile in France he has turned his back on his compatriots and dissidents.
In 2008, a Czech magazine accused him of being a police informer during the communist regime, which he dismissed as “pure lies”.
Kundera, who only regained Czech nationality in 2019, notably banned the translation into his mother tongue of the books he had written in French.
But according to Mr Kubicek, Kundera’s alleged break from his homeland was “just a big Czech myth”.
“When the French criticize Kundera they talk about his novels, whereas here, all the criticism comes down to gossip,” said Mr. Kubicek.
“People here don’t talk about his texts or his ideas. It would be nice if the library changed that.”