The Great Short Works

“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.