Ivan Klima came to be associated with the resistance against the communist dictatorship in former Czechoslovakia, together with, among others, Milan Kundera and Vaclav Havel. The latter later became the country's president after the so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Klima was first a member of the communist party, but left the party and became an opponent of the regime. After the Prague Spring of 1968 was crushed by Soviet troops, his texts were banned in Czechoslovakia.
His life and authorship were forever also marked by the Holocaust. His entire family was taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, but everyone survived.
Several of Ivan Klima's books were published in Sweden, including "A Summer of Love", which became a film in 1979, directed by Mats Arehn and starring Gösta Ekman. Among later works also published in Swedish are "Waiting for Darkness, Waiting for Light" from 1993 and "The Minister and the Angel" from 2003.
Klima's later books depict post-communist life in the Czech Republic, marked by abuse of power and disillusionment.
