The Trial

Published posthumously in 1925 despite his request to the contrary, German-language novelist Franz Kafka`s The Trial explores the absurdities and anxieties that gradually came to define the twentieth century, including relentless bureaucracy, alienation, authoritarianism and meaninglessness. The text opens with the arrest of a young bank official, Joseph K., on the morning of his 30th birthday for an unspecified crime by unidentified men working for an unnamed agency. Upon his release begins a nightmarish trial with endless court sessions and no resolution in sight, threatening his personal life and relationships.