A love story of two people whose relationship turned into a love match
Tomáš, a charming and respected Prague intellectual, meets the director Martina, who lives and works in Paris and Prague at the same time and is writing the script for a documentary about Milan Kundera.
The passionate love doesn't last too long, Martina gradually discovers that she is not alone in her relationship with her partner, until she becomes a tireless unmasker of Tomáš's more and more infidelities, while Tomáš's mistresses gradually become her conspirators.
Working on a film about Milan Kundera takes Martina to places connected with the writer's life and his novels, to Prague, Vienna, Paris. The basic themes of Kundera's novels appear in Martina's preparations and in fictional scenes from the upcoming film: love, sex, infidelity, cruel pranks of fate and the life of an intellectual caught in the snares of great history. All this in contrast to the misery of police spying and interference in the lives of others. The sophisticated and sophisticated snooping of StB agents in Kundera's privacy unexpectedly intersects with Martina's own fate. But she can use more modern methods than the former secret police - the internet, Facebook and mobile phones. Martina's masochistic search for the truth brings her almost to the brink of self-destruction. However, working on the film fulfils her and the author, through her heroine Martina, brings the reader unexpectedly interesting details and connections from Kundera's work and life.
Since Martina, a former expatriate, spends much of her life in Paris, her story is intertwined with the events of recent years, such as the refugee crisis, the issue of the Islamization of France, the murders at Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan, and the rise of Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. The depiction of French realities and the bitter debates between the "progressive" Martina and the "guardian of traditional values" Thomas form another compelling line in this thrilling love novel.
