The Trial
by Franz Kafka
This classic account of bureaucratic tyranny resonates in any time and any place – which is to say, all times and all places – where people are abused by humans and institutions more powerful than them.
Recommendations from our site
“The Trial tells of the struggle of a high-ranking bank official (a status not unlike that of Kafka at his insurance institute) who is charged by a mysterious Court with having committed a crime (forever unspecified) and is murdered by warders of the Court in a particularly brutal and sexually charged manner. What is extraordinary is the degree of penetration the “novel” has made into the legal mind as well.” Read more...
“The concept of law is more central to life in Hong Kong than any other place I’ve worked in the world. In most democracies, the law tends to play out in the background, barely noticed or commented upon but somehow comforting, like muzak in a lift. In Hong Kong it’s in your face, from the Basic Law to the quasi-religious faith in independent judges and the rule of law. There is no better book than Franz Kafka’s The Trial to smash our illusions about the law into a thousand desolate pieces.” Read more...
“I read this before going to Nigeria but moving there made me think about it a lot. The idea that the system always wins.” Read more...
Michael Peel, Foreign Correspondent
