Compare this to any previous translation, and you’ll see, for a start, that there is no dilly-dallying with style; the prose is swift, direct and without obfuscation, as, one presumes, Kafka intended. He has cut through literary pretension to seek out the heart of Kafka’s work—the very ‘particles’ of his writing, as they have been called. His translation shows Kafka as a modern writer whose work was beyond that of anything written at that time. Mr. Hofmann, in his many excellent translations from the German, always makes brave choices.—Lee Rourke, The Guardian
Michael HofmannThe poet Michael Hofmann’s awards for translation include the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, the Schlegel-Tieck Prize (four times), and most recently, the American Academy’s Thornton Wilder Prize in Translation.
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
With a contribution by Reiner Stach
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Translated by Michael Hofmann
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Hofmann and Kafka…provide one with rich intellectual companionship.—Diana Darke, The Times Literary Supplement
Hofmann’s translation is invaluable—it achieves what translations are supposedly unable to do: it is at once ‘loyal’ and ‘beautiful.’—New Republic
Anything by Kafka is worth reading again, especially in the hands of such a gifted translator as Hofmann.—The New York Times Book Review
Compare this to any previous translation, and you’ll see, for a start, that there is no dilly-dallying with style; the prose is swift, direct and without obfuscation, as, one presumes, Kafka intended. He has cut through literary pretension to seek out the heart of Kafka’s work—the very ‘particles’ of his writing, as they have been called. His translation shows Kafka as a modern writer whose work was beyond that of anything written at that time. Mr. Hofmann, in his many excellent translations from the German, always makes brave choices.—Lee Rourke, The Guardian
Michael Hofmann’s magnificent new translation restores its rightful place as one of Kafka’s most delightful and most memorable works.—Charles Simic
