Kundera’s first novel written in French is a small, sly book about haste, memory, vanity, desire, set over the course of a single night.

Slowness moves between contemporary characters at a château-hotel and an eighteenth-century tale of seduction, letting the two worlds mirror and mock each other. It’s one of his lightest books in scale and one of his sharpest in tone: elegant, amused, faintly cruel, and completely preoccupied with what speed does to intimacy, thought, and selfhood.

A very good Kundera for people who like their philosophy dressed as flirtation, farce, and social observation.

Faber & Faber hardback, first UK edition, 1996. Translated by Linda Asher from the French. Originally published in France as La Lenteur. In great condition, little dust jacket wear but otherwise great.