Fiction In Translation

Translated by Mark Harman Kafka began writing what he had entitled 'Der Verschollene' ('The Missing Person') in 1912 and wrote the last completed chapter in 1914. But it wasn't until 1927, three years after his death, that Max Brod, Kafka's friend and literary executor, edited the unfinished manuscript and published it as Amerika'. Kafka's first and funniest novel, Amerika tells the story of the young Karl Rossmann who, after an incident involving a housemaid, is banished by his parents to Am...

Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This...