Author(s): Franz Kafka (translated by Susan Bernofsky)

Novel | Translated fiction

Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains, a century later, one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of travelling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges and Ray Bradbury and continues to unsettle millions of readers. In her new translation, Susan Bernofsky strives to capture both the humour and the humanity in this macabre tale, underscoring the ways in which Gregor Samsa's grotesque metamorphosis is just the physical manifestation of his longstanding spiritual impoverishment.

 "Bernofsky's vibrant new translation preserves the comedy as well as the tragedy of Kafka's text; it convinces both on its own and when read with the original in mind." -- Times Literary Supplement
"...brilliant edition of Kafka's novella...prepare to be pleasantly surprised here as Susan Bernofsky's brilliant translation brings out Kafka's sharp wit." -- The Indpendent

Author Biography: Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born of Jewish parents in Prague. Several of his story collections were published in his lifetime and his novels, The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika, were published posthumously by his editor Max Brod. Susan Bernofsky is the acclaimed translator of Hermann Hesse, Robert Walser, and Jenny Erpenbeck, and the recipient of many awards, including the Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize and the Hermann Hesse Translation Prize. She teaches literary translation at Columbia University and lives in New York.