Synopsis
'A highly entertaining story of literary friendship, epic legal battles and cultural politics centred on one of the most enigmatic writers of the 20th century' Financial Times
When Franz Kafka died in 1924, his friend Max Brod could not bring himself to fulfil the writer’s last instruction: to burn his remaining manuscripts. Instead, Brod took them with him...
Details
20 September 2018304 pages
9781509836727Imprint: Picador
Reviews
A literary battle that became Kafkaesque . . . remarkable . . . I warmly recommend this deeply absorbing book.Daily Telegraph
[A] fascinating and forensically scrupulous account of the history of Kafka’s papers.John Banville, Guardian
Balint fascinatingly examines how much was at stake for Germany and Israel in claiming Kafka as their man . . . [He] has minutely researched every twist and turn of this politico-legal saga, and tells it with even-handed seriousness.Sunday Times
Balint’s account of this saga is both a fine journalistic telling of that half century of courtroom drama, and a revealing examination of the writer and the relationships at its heart . . . Balint brings all of these forces and arguments to vivid life.Observer
