Trial, The (Penguin Classics)

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.

Review: The Dante of the Twentieth Century -- W. H. Auden
This compelling, prophetic novel anticipates the insanity of modern bureaucracy and the coming of totalitarianism -- The Daily Telegraph
It is the fate and perhaps the greatness of that work that it offers everything and confirms nothing -- Albert Camus
It was Kafka who made me understand that one can write differently -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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.