Kundera's first novel, here in a Spanish edition, is set in Czechoslovakia under Communist rule. Ludvik, a young student, sends a teasing postcard to a girlfriend, and the joke is taken as an offence against the Party. His life is thrown off course, and years later he plans a cold, calculated revenge. Told through several voices, the book explores political zeal, youthful folly, folk tradition and the way history turns private acts into public matters.