Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a German-speaking Czech-Austrian author regarded as one of the
most important writers during the 20th century. He was born and grew up in a middle-class Czech
Jewish family in Prague. Later he trained as a lawyer and after completing his legal education
was employed full-time by an insurance company. Hence he wrote in his spare time and used the
experiences from the insurance company as inspiration for his works which more than once
describes a bizarre bureaucracy. However none of his works were published during his
lifetime. In his will Kafka instructed his executor and friend Max Brod to destroy his
unfinished works including his novels The Trial The Castle and America. Instead of obeying
Kafka's instruction Brod published his works which later has influenced several writers
critics artists and philosophers during the 20th and 21st centuries. Today Kafka is renowned
as one of the greatest interpreters on human exposure in a world where laws and ordinance are
superior to the individual. The conception and design behind our bookends stem from Swedish
renowned industrial designer Jan Landqvist and are made in the small town of Gnosjö in the
south of Sweden.
