A superb new translation by Michael Hofmann of some of Kafka's most frightening and visionary short fictionStrange beasts,night terrors,absurd bureaucrats and sinister placesabound in this collection of stories by Franz Kafka. Some are less than apage long,others more substantial; all were unpublished in hislifetime. These matchless short works range from the gleeful miniaturehorror'Little Fable'to the off-kilter humour of'Investigations of aDog',and from the elaborate waking nightmare of'Building the GreatWall of China'to the creeping unease of'The Burrow',where a namelesscreature's labyrinthine hiding place turns into a trap of fear andparanoia.
Publisher: Penguin Books LtdISBN: 9780241372593Number of pages: 240Weight: 179 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 14 mm
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A superb translation... alerts us to the strangeness of Kafka's world - often funnier or happier than we give it credit for - without using the word "Kafkaesque",which should be retired as it now means little more than "frustratingly bureaucratic". Kafka's world is richer,and more rewarding than that.Kafka's posthumously published short fiction cry out for a critical exegesis... newly translated by Michael Hofmann,the stories collected in The Burrow mingle dark comedy with a proto-surrealist intent to unsettle...excellent new translationsHofmann,with his taste for mischief,makes Kafka,often translated in a buttoned-up key,a writer capable of blending old-fashioned literary parlance and contemporary media-speak... the modern touches also emphasise the timelessness of Kafka's themes,the horror of institutions being just one of them.
Franz Kafka
One of the most influential authors of the 20th Century,Franz Kafka was a Bohemian novelist and short story writer,best known for The Trial and The Metamorphosis.
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