A masterful new translation by Michael Hofmann of some of Kafka’s most fantastical and visionary short fiction

Animals, strange beasts, bureaucrats, businessmen, and nightmares populate this collection of stories by Franz Kafka. These matchless short works, all unpublished during Kafka’s lifetime, range from the gleeful dialogue between a cat and a mouse in “Little Fable” to the absurd humor of “Investigations of a Dog, ” from the elaborate waking nightmare of “Building the Great Wall of China” to the creeping unease of “The Burrow, ” where a nameless creature’s labyrinthine hiding place turns into a trap of fear and paranoia.

Circa l’autore

The award-winning translator Michael Hofmann has also translated works by Jenny Erpenbeck, Gert Hofmann, Franz Kafka, Heinrich von Kleist, and Joseph Roth for New Directions. His translation of Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck was awarded the International Booker Prize in 2024.