“And thus it happens that the reader, the closer he comes to the novel's end, the more he wishes he were back in the summer with which it begins, and finally, instead of following the hero onto the cliffs of suicide, joyfully turns back to that summer, content to stay there forever.”

German-language Jewish writer from Prague

Franz Kafka was a German-language Jewish writer from Prague. He is a major figure of 20th-century literature, known for works that blend realism with the fantastic and for the word Kafkaesque, now used for situations marked by confusion, absurdity, and impersonal power. His best-known books include the novella The Metamorphosis and the novels The Trial and The Castle. He is also remembered for brief fables and aphorisms that often mix comic touches with the darker concerns of his longer fiction, and his writing has influenced many fields beyond literature.