“Joachim Neugroschel's version is an advance over previous translations of Kafka into English.” —Harold Bloom, author of How to Read and Why
“In Neugroschel's version we see more of Kafka's meaning, his unexpected comedy....In this version, we have for the first time the sense of understanding Kafka's complexity and where it might lead us.” —Joseph Coates, Chicago Tribune
“Joachim Neugroschel has provided something that was badly needed—an accurate translation of Kafka's stories into English. Kafka is difficult to translate, and the version we all know—by Edwin and Willa Muir—is full of mistakes. Neugroschel's translation is much closer to Kafka's German.” —Ronald Hayman, author of K: A Biography of Kafka and Proust
“In Kafka, I have found a portion of my own experience of the world, of myself, and of my way of being in the world.” —Václav Havel
Description
“In Neugroschel’s version we see more of Kafka’s meaning, his unexpected comedy…we have for the first time the sense of understanding Kafka’s complexity and where it might lead us.” —Chicago Tribune
A classic translation of Kafka’s best-known, and most obscure, short fiction—with a new foreword from celebrated writer Ling Ma.
Widely recognized as one of the preeminent English-language anthologies of Kafka’s stories, this critically acclaimed collection assembles the great short works of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers. With masterful attentiveness to the intricacies of Kafka’s dialect of Prague German, this is an essential selection of forty-four stories, including such timeless works of fiction as “The Metamorphosis,” “In the Penal Colony,” and “The Judgment.” Brought into the present by a foreword from Ling Ma, Kafka’s work has never been more relevant to contemporary literature—nor has Kafka himself ever been a keener observer of the human condition, with his singular apprehension of power, the absurd, and the enigma and alienation at the center of modern living.