Hay Festival April Book Club – Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
– Free Online
Join our expert panel of readers – translator Michael Hofmann and Carolin Duttlinger, Professor of German Literature and Culture at University of Oxford – as they discuss Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, one of the twentieth century's most influential works of fiction. As 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Kafka's death, our panel will explore his enduring global legacy through a close reading of one of his most iconic works. In conversation with award-winning journalist Manveen Rana.
Further reading
Franz Kafka in the 21st century, Goethe Institut
Our enduring fascination with Kafka, FT
About Hay Festival Book Club
Timeless titles to offer you a break from the day to day. Can't decide what to read next? Follow your curiosity and join Hay Festival on a journey to imagine the world anew through great literature. Unconstrained by genre or form these are our monthly picks of great books worth reading (or re-reading) right now.
Throughout the month, we'll share interesting links and articles relating to our selection on social media using #HFBookClub and invite you all to get involved with your questions and comments. Each selection will also be marked with a free online event.
If you'd like to recommend a book for consideration, get in touch via bookclub@hayfestival.org.
Happy reading!
Supported by Unwin Charitable Trust
Buy the book for this event
Metamorphosis and other stories
A collection of Kafka's greatest short fiction, translated by Michael Hofmann
Kafka's masterpiece of unease and black humour, Metamorphosis, the story of an ordinary man transformed into an insect, is brought together in this collection with the rest of his works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes Contemplation, a collection of his earlier short studies; The Judgement, written in a single night of frenzied creativity; The Stoker, the first chapter of a novel set in America; and an eyewitness account of an air display. Together, these stories, fragments and miniature gems reveal the breadth of his vision, his sense of the absurd, and above all his acute, uncanny wit.
