The Trial

By Franz Kafka

Categories: Literature & Fiction

Franz Kafka's novel follows Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is arrested one morning without being told what crime he is accused of. As he tries to defend himself, he is drawn into a strange, endless legal process run by a hidden and unreachable court. Published after Kafka's death in 1925, the novel is a powerful portrait of the individual facing an absurd and powerful bureaucracy, and has become one of the most influential works of modern literature.

Recommended by 2 people

• Shane Parrish: “The tale of Josef K., a responsible bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. This is widely considered one of the great works of the twentieth century.”
• David Heinemeier Hansson: “The Trial is perhaps my favorite novel of all time”