Karl Rossman has been banished by his parents to America following a family scandal. There
with unquenchable optimism he throws himself into the strange experiences that lie before him
as he slowly makes his way into the interior of the great continent. Although Kafka's first
novel (begun in 1911 and never finished) can be read as a menacing allegory of modern life it
is also infused with a quite un-Kafkaesque blitheness and sunniness brought to life in this
lyrical translation that returns to the original manuscript of the book.
