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Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories
Pioneering graphic novelist Peter Kuper is widely recognized for his provocative illustrations, which combine stunning artistic technique with shrewd political and social commentary.
Working from new translations, Kuper has reimagined Franz Kafka’s iconic stories for the twenty-first century. Longtime lovers of Kafka will appreciate Kuper’s innovative vision of the master’s work, while Kafka novices will discover a haunting introduction to some of the great writer’s most beguiling stories.
Working from new translations, Kuper has reimagined Franz Kafka’s iconic stories for the twenty-first century. Longtime lovers of Kafka will appreciate Kuper’s innovative vision of the master’s work, while Kafka novices will discover a haunting introduction to some of the great writer’s most beguiling stories.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2018
10 people are currently reading
452 people want to read
About the author
Franz Kafka
3,230 books38.7k followersFranz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews
October 11, 2018
Wonderful comics/illustrated versions of 14 stories by cartoonist/illustrator Kuper. Some of these are stripped-down versions of short short stories told in even shorter fashion through mostly images, sometimes in as few as four pages, such as "Trip to the Mountains," or "A Little Fable". Maybe those are not quite as memorable as others, but there's no mistaking Kuper's deep connection to Kafka. Kuper gets Kafka!
There's an intro by Kuper, which explains, among other things, why he is attracted to the (admittedly bleak, or black) humor of Kafka. There's some expected stories, much longer, such as Kafka classic stories "The Hunger Artist" and "In the Penal Colony" that are bleak and yes, have a kind of surreal (call it gallows?) humor, some of them focused on authoritarian power crushing little people, sometimes based in the legal profession, something Kafka knew from his own work and training.
The black and white scratchboard art is meant to approximate some of the black and white woodcuts with which Kafka may have been familiar at the time he wrote, early twentieth century comics wordless comics by Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward. The production is awesome.
A preview of the book by Kuper, on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/PKuperArt/status/...
Here's a 38 minute film presentation, thanks to YouTube, of Kuper on his career, Kafka (Kuper also did a comics version of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis,") and about this book in particular:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1gS1...
Rich Barrett's fine review in The Comics Journal, where you can see some of the images from the book:
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/kafkaesque/
Wordless God's Man by Lynd Ward in YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DiaB...
There's an intro by Kuper, which explains, among other things, why he is attracted to the (admittedly bleak, or black) humor of Kafka. There's some expected stories, much longer, such as Kafka classic stories "The Hunger Artist" and "In the Penal Colony" that are bleak and yes, have a kind of surreal (call it gallows?) humor, some of them focused on authoritarian power crushing little people, sometimes based in the legal profession, something Kafka knew from his own work and training.
The black and white scratchboard art is meant to approximate some of the black and white woodcuts with which Kafka may have been familiar at the time he wrote, early twentieth century comics wordless comics by Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward. The production is awesome.
A preview of the book by Kuper, on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/PKuperArt/status/...
Here's a 38 minute film presentation, thanks to YouTube, of Kuper on his career, Kafka (Kuper also did a comics version of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis,") and about this book in particular:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1gS1...
Rich Barrett's fine review in The Comics Journal, where you can see some of the images from the book:
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/kafkaesque/
Wordless God's Man by Lynd Ward in YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DiaB...
September 12, 2022
Peter Kuper is the most obvious choice in comics to do an adapation of Kafka. He's so good at dark, politically-charged, anxiety-inducing comics. Here he takes all his skills and applies it to adapting some of Kafka's best known short works.
It's good primer on Kafka and demonstrates Kafka's lasting appeal.
It's good primer on Kafka and demonstrates Kafka's lasting appeal.
February 9, 2023
Interesting take on fourteen of Kafka's works.
This graphic novel format adaptation illuminates rather than diminishes.
Surreal illustrations work well with the mood and language of the original stories.
This graphic novel format adaptation illuminates rather than diminishes.
Surreal illustrations work well with the mood and language of the original stories.
September 11, 2021
Excelente interpretación gráfica de los relatos de Kafka
March 10, 2024
Het is zoveel makkelijker te lezen in strip-vorm wie had dat gedacht. Minder lezen en meer plaatjes! Mocht dit van Evan lenen, omdat ik mijzelf graag martel met Kafka. Nu nog Kafka on the Shore, als die ooit weer wordt gevonden in de bieb!
January 20, 2019
I love graphic adaptations of Kafka. In part his stories lend themselves to it. And he attracts excellent artists as well. This is a collection of fourteen stories, including "The Hunger Artist", "In the Penal Colony", "The Burrow," and several lesser known fables. They are black-and-white and look like they were done on woodcuts in German expressionist style. The text is all drawn directly from the stories but highly abbreviated.
What I particularly appreciated in going back-and-forth between the full text of some of the stories and Kuper's adaptation is how he took turns of phrase that I had never taken literally and rendered them as such (e.g., the scribbles on the page of instructions for The Harrow in "In the Penal Colony" or a coal bucket rider flying through the air.
Of course not a substitute for the stories themselves, but definitely a complement.
What I particularly appreciated in going back-and-forth between the full text of some of the stories and Kuper's adaptation is how he took turns of phrase that I had never taken literally and rendered them as such (e.g., the scribbles on the page of instructions for The Harrow in "In the Penal Colony" or a coal bucket rider flying through the air.
Of course not a substitute for the stories themselves, but definitely a complement.
Read
November 12, 2018This rating/review is based on an ARC from the publisher.
Not for me. I hate Kafka, which I kind of knew before but I definitely know now.
Not for me. I hate Kafka, which I kind of knew before but I definitely know now.
March 1, 2024
It's beautiful 🥹
January 27, 2024
wow ok
September 23, 2018
Kuper wonderfully illustrates Franz Kafka's short and inscrutable tales of torment, torture and death in his trademark jagged style.
Apparently, Kafka was an early adopter of flash fiction, as the original stories adapted here are often less than a thousand words, and at least one was basically just a single paragraph. Despite the length, they are packed with symbolism and unspoken depth that just left my poor head spinning.
Worth a look, but too dark and bleak to ever enjoy.
Apparently, Kafka was an early adopter of flash fiction, as the original stories adapted here are often less than a thousand words, and at least one was basically just a single paragraph. Despite the length, they are packed with symbolism and unspoken depth that just left my poor head spinning.
Worth a look, but too dark and bleak to ever enjoy.
December 2, 2025
Very short stories, made even shorter for this graphic treatment. The art, which resembles woodcuts by Lynd Ward, is well suited to the stories. Though I prefer Kafka's longer works, these adaptations are pretty nice.
May 25, 2020
Una visión diferente de algunos relatos de Kafka, re-interpretados a través de la narrativa gráfica de Peter Kuper. Sobre todo rescato que no son los relatos ilustrados, sino realmente una re-narración a través de la visión gráfica de Kuper, que los hace diferentes, algunos los contextualiza de nueva cuenta, otros permanecen en su forma más clásica, otros más son llevados al límite fantástico.
Rescato especialmente "La madriguera" y "En la colonia penal". Aunque el libro está muy bueno, la edición tal vez desmerece un poco en la traducción, no por el idioma sino porque implicó modificar cuestiones tipográficas y se pierden algunos detalles. Kuper menciona que parte de su trabajo fue utilizar diferentes letras a mano para identificar personajes, cosa que me parece, en la edición en español se pierde. Por eso baja un poco las estrellas, ya que considero que en un libro eminentemente visual, es algo muy importante.
Rescato especialmente "La madriguera" y "En la colonia penal". Aunque el libro está muy bueno, la edición tal vez desmerece un poco en la traducción, no por el idioma sino porque implicó modificar cuestiones tipográficas y se pierden algunos detalles. Kuper menciona que parte de su trabajo fue utilizar diferentes letras a mano para identificar personajes, cosa que me parece, en la edición en español se pierde. Por eso baja un poco las estrellas, ya que considero que en un libro eminentemente visual, es algo muy importante.
January 17, 2022
I've read a couple of collections of kupers Kafka and think he is a perfect graphic art interpretor of Kafka works the woodcut etch angst German expressionist black and white layouts are excellent! Also check out Sinclairs the jungle by Peter kuper.
October 23, 2018
Appropriately strange. Kafka's brain must have been a dark quite place where whispers of dread came up from below the floorboards.
March 10, 2019
I really enjoyed these clever Kuper interpretations, which captured the mood of inevitability, the odd dread that's all Kafka.
June 26, 2018
Illuminated the work perfectly, would recommend for anyone wanting to understand Kafka or for general graphic novel fans.
March 31, 2022
Absolutely loved this. The menacing bold illustrations perfectly match the Kafka stories; the oppressors, the political system, social injustice, poverty, bureaucracy, surrealism.
Already looking forward to revisiting this and checking out more of Kuper’s work
Already looking forward to revisiting this and checking out more of Kuper’s work
October 5, 2023
Ce fut effectivement kafkaesque, maaaiis rien d’extraordinaire
June 5, 2024
four beetles out of five
March 31, 2025
The artwork is spectacular. However, many of the stories chosen were not easy to interpret. Perhaps a second read would help.
February 25, 2025
Some of those images are insanely cool. Can't wait to read more by this kafka guy
January 19, 2026
loved it. some Stories there I'd never heard about before so that's a win
March 10, 2021
Cool to see how the stories are interpreted in the images. Some stories captured me more than others.
April 4, 2023
Kuper seems to have a firm grasp on Kafka's messages, and his stylistic choice reflects them. The stories in this book are mostly from Kafka's very short fables, often only 3-4 pages long. (Two longest are "The Hunger Artist" and "In the Penal Colony").
Great adaptations make the readers see the points that he might have missed in the original work, and this book provided such an opportunity for me.
Kafka is type of a writer whose messages become more and more agreeable as one ages. I read his novels when I was much younger, and I'd love to revisit them. Reading this graphic novel adaptation made me more so.
Great adaptations make the readers see the points that he might have missed in the original work, and this book provided such an opportunity for me.
Kafka is type of a writer whose messages become more and more agreeable as one ages. I read his novels when I was much younger, and I'd love to revisit them. Reading this graphic novel adaptation made me more so.
November 30, 2018
A creative and accessible version of a handful of Kafka's most famous stories, Kuper was a good illustrator for such, bringing the twinge of humor and the skepticism and cynical drawl of Kafka to the reader visually.
March 14, 2019
Absolutely loved this! Could've read on and on and on. Kuper managed to capture the essence of Kafka in every panel. Superb!
August 5, 2019
This book was a birthday gift and surely I loved it!
February 2, 2020
Quite a remarkable adaptation and presentation. Well done. Gorgeous art that does a remarkable job of adapting the material.
September 16, 2025
In this brief review, I compare two graphic adaptations of some of Franz Kafka's stories: (1) Kafka: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, adapted by Nishioka Kyōdai in 2010 and translated from the Japanese by David Yang (Pushkin Press, 2023), and (2) Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories, adapted by Peter Kuper (W.W. Norton, 2018). One is good and the other is really good.
Externally, the Pushkin edition looks like a regular English book, but the first page from the left says "This is the last page!" It reads right to left like manga. Apparently Nishioka Kyōdai (hence NK) means Nishioka siblings, because it's the pen name of a brother-sister manga duo known for their surreal illustrations. (Surreal fits Kafka, but I didn't love the pictures.)
Interestingly, David Yang the translator explains that he needed to produce a hybrid translation of Kafka's German, Ikeuchi Osamu's Japanese (which NK used), and NK's graphics. That sounds tricky!
Peter Kuper is a very impressive graphic novelist (this is the tenth book I've read of his) who has previously written and illustrated his own books as well as graphic adaptations, including Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Kafka's Metamorphosis (he does "disturbing" very well). Kuper is so creative that every one of the 14 stories in this book has a different style. (Jules Feiffer called Kafkaesque "a series of riffs and visual improvisations.") At the same time, he does an excellent job conveying the nightmare feeling which fits Kafka's works so well. To see several pages from Kafkaesque, take a look at this interview with Kuper.
Externally, the Pushkin edition looks like a regular English book, but the first page from the left says "This is the last page!" It reads right to left like manga. Apparently Nishioka Kyōdai (hence NK) means Nishioka siblings, because it's the pen name of a brother-sister manga duo known for their surreal illustrations. (Surreal fits Kafka, but I didn't love the pictures.)
Interestingly, David Yang the translator explains that he needed to produce a hybrid translation of Kafka's German, Ikeuchi Osamu's Japanese (which NK used), and NK's graphics. That sounds tricky!
Peter Kuper is a very impressive graphic novelist (this is the tenth book I've read of his) who has previously written and illustrated his own books as well as graphic adaptations, including Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Kafka's Metamorphosis (he does "disturbing" very well). Kuper is so creative that every one of the 14 stories in this book has a different style. (Jules Feiffer called Kafkaesque "a series of riffs and visual improvisations.") At the same time, he does an excellent job conveying the nightmare feeling which fits Kafka's works so well. To see several pages from Kafkaesque, take a look at this interview with Kuper.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews