In 1988 Grove Press published Kundera's The Art of the Novel, a translation of L'Art du roman, originally published in 1986 (and not to be confused with his 1960 study on Vancura of the same title). The volume collects seven pieces which comprise, according to Kundera, "a practitioner's confession" of the idea of the novel inherent in his own works.

Notable among these are "The Depreciated Legacy of Cervantes," important for a full understanding of Cervantes's influence on Kundera's theory of the novel; "Somewhere Behind," a brilliant and suggestive essay on Kafka; and "Sixty-three Words," a dictionary of important terms in his fictions and aesthetics of the novel. Taken together, these essays and their companions reveal The Art of the Novel to be one of the most perceptive, interesting and lively theoretical statements on the medium within memory.