From one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial A collection that brings together the stories he allowed to be published during his lifetime, including his best-known tale of a man who wakes up transformed into an insect. To Max Brod, his literary executor, Kafka wrote: "Of all my writings the only books that can stand are these." "Kafka´s survey of the insectile situation of young Jews in inner Bohemia can hardly be improved upon: ´With their posterior legs they were still glued to their father´s Jewishness and with their wavering anterior legs they found no new ground.´ There is a sense in which Kafka´s Jewish question (´What have I in common with Jews?´) has become everybody´s question, Jewish alienation the template for all our doubts. What is Muslimness? What is femaleness? What is Polishness? These days we all find our anterior legs flailing before us. We´re all insects, all Ungeziefer, now." --Zadie Smith, bestselling aut
