Kafka may be the most important writer of the twentieth century - J.G. Ballard
The story of K., the unwanted Land Surveyor who is never admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home, seems to reveal an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence. In his introduction, Idris Parry shows that duality - to Kafka a perpetual human condition - lies at the heart of tis great work: dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, reason and nonsense, harmony and disintegration.
The Castle, then is an unfinished novel that feels strangely complete, in which a labyrinthine world is described in simple language and absurd fantasy reveals profound truth.
Cover photography: Sarah McGibbon.
