Cervantes, Joyce, Flaubert, Broch, Tolstoy, Kafka. What distinguishes the world and work of a truly great novelist? In these stunning philosophical reflections on the history, practice and morality of the novel, Kundera mines his personal experience as an author to argue that the European novel is 'an art born of the laughter of God'. Encompassing the role of historical events, the creation of character and the meaning of action in fiction, the result is a modern classic of literary criticism from one of the world's finest novelists - philosophical, playful and profound.