Milan Kundera

I'm not good at picking out favorites because it usually depends on my mood that day (only if I'm lucky, it can vary by the hour) but one author that always comes to mind when I'm drunkenly forcing novels down people's throats is Milan Kundera. The Unbearable Lightness of Being seems to be his most well known work and I was hooked. I finished that book in record timing (I'm the type that reads to the middle and then finds another book, reads the other book to the middle and then have to start all over again because I've forgotten much of the details) and inhaled his novellas (slowness is fantastic) and essays. His characters are never black and white, there always seems to be a gray ghost lurking in the corner somewhere and I love the air of mystery behind the developments.Aside from Unbearable Lightness, much of this early work is a political critique of totalitarianism, such as The Joke, and were banned due to their content. His ability to transform a traumatic past into a funny and poignant story is pure genius.

As a side note, I really love the new editions with his own sketchings on the cover.