Letter to His Father

By Franz Kafka

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Literature & Fiction

Letter to His Father is the letter Franz Kafka wrote to his father, Hermann, in 1919 but never delivered. Kafka tries to explain why he has always been afraid of him, describing a domineering and contemptuous parent and his own sense of weakness and guilt since childhood. He writes about his father's attitude to his writing, their Jewish faith and his failed engagements. Published after Kafka's death, it is often read as a key to his fiction and as a portrait of a damaged family relationship.

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• Ryan Holiday: “Kafka's letter to the father. This will wake you up as a parent. These are the things you would never want your kid to write to you.”