A passionate and provocative defence of art from the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.Are we living in an era that no longer values art or beauty? This is Kundera''s passionate defence of the creators who remain viscerally important to him, and whose work - especially the blazing newness of modernism - helps us better understand our worldFrom Francis Bacon''s paintings to the films of Federico Fellini, novels by Philip Roth or Fyodor Dostoyevsky - as well as writers who are unjustly obscure, such as Anatole France and Curzio Malaparte - Kundera spiritedly champions these artists for a new generation. Startlingly original and provocative - and always elegant, witty and ironic - Kundera''s argument that art is all we have to cleave to in the face of human evil grows more powerful by the day.''I cant imagine reading this book without being challenged and instructed, amused, amazed and aroused, and ultimately delighted.'' New York Times Book Review''A pan-European intellectual