FRANZ KAFKA was born in Prague in 1883 to German-speaking Jewish parents. During his lifetime, he published groundbreaking short stories, including “ The Judgment, ” “ The Stoker, ” and “ The Metamorphosis. ” After his death in 1924, his friend and literary executor, Max Brod, defied his testamentary instructions to burn all his unpublished writing. Kafka’ s posthumous work— including three unfinished novels, The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika— brought him worldwide renown.
ROSS BENJAMIN’ s translations include Friedrich Hö lderlin’ s Hyperion, Joseph Roth’ s Job, and Daniel Kehlmann’ s You Should Have Left and Tyll. He was awarded the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’ s Prize for his rendering of Michael Maar’ s Speak, Nabokov, and he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on Franz Kafka’ s diaries.
