Kafka’s Friend

Translated from the original Croatian by Nina H. Kay-Antoljak

2013 Longlist

Kafka’s Friend tells the powerfully emotional story of the friendship between two writers – Franz Kafka and Max Brod – and of the women who determined their destinies. Love and literature are constantly intertwined in the lives of the sensitive heroes. The novel is set in Prague in the period from 1903 to 1924, and then during 1953 in Tel Aviv. The beginning of the 20th century and the years immediately subsequent to World War 1 are convincingly described, while the biographies of the well-known heroes – despite the extent to which the factography is respected – present an unexpected story in Gavran’s interpretation.

(From Publisher)

About the Author

Miro Gavran is a contemporary Croatian writer. His works have been translated into thirty-five languages. Along with the collection of short stories Small Unusual People, he has written the novels Forgotten Son, How We Broke Our Legs, Clara, margita or journey through a Past Life, Judith, John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate, The Only Witness to Beauty and Kafka’s Friend. He has received some twenty literary and theatre awards, including the Central European Time Award, given to the best Central-European Time Award, given to the best Central – European writer, and the European Circle Award for affirmation of European values in literary texts.

Librarian’s Comments

Gavran has written a strong work of art in the form of a short novel, carefully designed for a modern reader, short of breath and short of time. Facts from biographies of two extraordinary European intellectuals of 20th century – Franz Kafka and Max Brod present a platform for discussing eternal literary preoccupations like friendship and love, as well as depicting a specific period in history.