Franz Kafka: A Writer's Life By Joachim Unseld, Translated by Paul F. Dvorak

Joachim Unseld shows that the prevalent scholarly view of Kafka contradicts the reality of the close, symbiotic relationship between Kafka's private life and his literary aims. The author pays particular attention to Kafka's relationship with his publishers, discussing in detail the correspondence between Kafka and Ernst Rowohlt, Kurt Wolff, and his friend and tireless advocate, Max Brod. The resulting picture reveals an 'author's author' intent on establishing himself in public, but one whose personal instability as well as his integrity, modesty, and inherent 'bad luck' consistently thwarted his ardent desire for a writer's life.

"We have before us a book that is to be recommended to everyone who wants to gain a nuanced picture of Kafka and the literary world he inhabited." Süddeutsche Zeitung

"It is refreshing. . .to have a work which provides us with new insights as well as new facts." World Literature Today