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He: Shorter Writings of Franz Kafka
A new selection of Franz Kafka’s shorter fiction and nonfiction work, selected and with a preface by Book of Numbers author Joshua Cohen.
“Being asked to write about Kafka is like being asked to describe the Great Wall of China by someone who’s standing just next to it. The only honest thing to do is point.” —Joshua Cohen, from his foreword to He: Shorter Writings of Franz Kafka
This is a Kafka emergency kit, a congregation of the brief, the minor works that are actually major. Joshua Cohen has produced a frame that refuses distinctions between what is a story, a letter, a workplace memo, and a diary entry, also including popular favorites like The Bucket Rider, The Penal Colony, and The Burrow. Here we see Kafka’s preoccupations in writing about animals, messiah variations, food, and exercise, each in his signature style.
Cohen’s selection emphasizes the stately structure of utterly coherent logic within an utterly incoherent and illogical world, showing how Kafka harnessed the humblest grammar to metamorphic power, until the predominant effect ceases to be the presence of an unreliable narrator but the absence of the universe’s only reliable narrator—God.
“Being asked to write about Kafka is like being asked to describe the Great Wall of China by someone who’s standing just next to it. The only honest thing to do is point.” —Joshua Cohen, from his foreword to He: Shorter Writings of Franz Kafka
This is a Kafka emergency kit, a congregation of the brief, the minor works that are actually major. Joshua Cohen has produced a frame that refuses distinctions between what is a story, a letter, a workplace memo, and a diary entry, also including popular favorites like The Bucket Rider, The Penal Colony, and The Burrow. Here we see Kafka’s preoccupations in writing about animals, messiah variations, food, and exercise, each in his signature style.
Cohen’s selection emphasizes the stately structure of utterly coherent logic within an utterly incoherent and illogical world, showing how Kafka harnessed the humblest grammar to metamorphic power, until the predominant effect ceases to be the presence of an unreliable narrator but the absence of the universe’s only reliable narrator—God.
320 pages, Paperback
Published February 22, 2022
29 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
About the author
Franz Kafka
3,285 books38.9k 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 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 4, 2022
brain now overloaded with metaphysical pondering
fave stories:
the great wall of china
a country doctor
the burrow (though it made me want to strangle a fictional rabbit with an anxiety disorder)
in the penal colony
the sirens
fave stories:
the great wall of china
a country doctor
the burrow (though it made me want to strangle a fictional rabbit with an anxiety disorder)
in the penal colony
the sirens
October 23, 2020
If you've got the complete short stories there's only a few very short pieces here you won't have read before which is a bit disappointing. However if you've not read that, all the significant stories are here: "A Country Doctor", "The Burrow", "The Great Wall Of China", "In The Penal Colony", "The Hunger Artist" which are some of the greatest short stories ever written. Joshua Cohen's short intro is very interesting, boh on Kafka and on representation in fiction.
February 26, 2024
My only two thoughts:
I might be the mole from The Burrow.
More than a few of these stories felt like watching a car crash in slow motion. 🤗
I might be the mole from The Burrow.
More than a few of these stories felt like watching a car crash in slow motion. 🤗
August 15, 2021
Great introduction by Joshua Cohen!
Unfortunately, the rest of the content didn't resonate with me. Most of the works were too random and it just felt like too much work to analyze each one metaphysically.
A few pieces, e.g. Jackals and Arabs and Before the Law, deserve wider recognition and should be included in more short story anthologies.
Unless you are doing research on Kafka or ready to think deeply about each story this collection is not for you.
Unfortunately, the rest of the content didn't resonate with me. Most of the works were too random and it just felt like too much work to analyze each one metaphysically.
A few pieces, e.g. Jackals and Arabs and Before the Law, deserve wider recognition and should be included in more short story anthologies.
Unless you are doing research on Kafka or ready to think deeply about each story this collection is not for you.
December 7, 2022
4.5 rounded up. no one gets me like kafka
September 20, 2023
Most of these works were beautiful and I enjoyed reading more of Kafka's writing.
However.
'The Burrow' was the single most frustrating short story I have ever had the displeasure of reading. The time it took me to finish it could have been spent reading the entirety of Kafka's other works, it took me so long. I only ended up finnishing it because after I got over the half way mark I was feeling way too stubborn and refused to give up because that stupid mole creature doesn't get to win. The impression that story had on me slighly outweighed everything else in the collection. I have a lot of anger for that depressed mole.
I will say that Joshua Cohen's preface was actually gorgeous and I enjoyed reading it almost as much as I did the other works (exluding 'The Burrow') He beautifully sums up the experience of reading Kafka and offers really interesting insight into the translation and his own experiences with the author. I would say his preface makes this collection worth a read, even if you have already consumed all of Kafka's work.
However.
'The Burrow' was the single most frustrating short story I have ever had the displeasure of reading. The time it took me to finish it could have been spent reading the entirety of Kafka's other works, it took me so long. I only ended up finnishing it because after I got over the half way mark I was feeling way too stubborn and refused to give up because that stupid mole creature doesn't get to win. The impression that story had on me slighly outweighed everything else in the collection. I have a lot of anger for that depressed mole.
I will say that Joshua Cohen's preface was actually gorgeous and I enjoyed reading it almost as much as I did the other works (exluding 'The Burrow') He beautifully sums up the experience of reading Kafka and offers really interesting insight into the translation and his own experiences with the author. I would say his preface makes this collection worth a read, even if you have already consumed all of Kafka's work.
April 12, 2024
I bought this because I was looking for a collection mostly translated by Willa & Edwin Muir. Before this, I had only read a few Kafka stories (none of the novels yet) but I have always enjoyed authors influenced by him. These stories are selected by Joshua Cohen, author of The Netanyahus. They are arranged in four sections and prefaced.
The preface is okay. The parts about translating him and his way of writing are best.
The first section are influenced strongly by Jewish mythology, which I don't have much knowledge of, so some went past me. These are sort of aphorisms. I liked Paradise, "... we may in fact be there permanently, no matter whether we know it or not." The Bush, The Building of the Temple, The Holy of Holies and The Coming of the Messiah are also excellent.
The second section started with The Great Wall of China, which I view as a masterpiece. I would be tempted to call it his best work, except I haven't actually read much of his works yet. Others in this section are about animals and colonialism. Jackals and Arabs is a bit uncomfortable, not sure exactly what it means.
The third section contains some longer stories, in particular the notable stories: A Country Doctor, The Burrow, Josephine the Singer. Two of those are masterpieces. Some of the shorter ones here are like prose poems. The Bridge is probably one of them that Kafka and his friends cackled over.
The fourth section starts with a circus theme that leads in A Hunger Artist, another masterpiece. First Sorrow is another great one. The Whip is a very vivid prose poem. In The Penal Colony is an obvious classic. After that are more great stories especially The Silence of the Sirens, Poseidon and The City Coat of Arms. Some of these later ones have an eternal quality.
Before reading this I had an image of 'Kafkaesque' in my head from popular culture. That might be found in The Trial or Metamorphosis (don't know haven't read them yet) but here there is a lot more to see than that narrow view of Kafka. The other image was of the writer laughing loudly and awakening his neighbours reading these aloud. That I could see in a few but certainly not most. I most enjoyed the stories with an eternal and minimising (almost cosmic horror) feel, but not entirely depressing, like Great Wall.
The preface is okay. The parts about translating him and his way of writing are best.
The first section are influenced strongly by Jewish mythology, which I don't have much knowledge of, so some went past me. These are sort of aphorisms. I liked Paradise, "... we may in fact be there permanently, no matter whether we know it or not." The Bush, The Building of the Temple, The Holy of Holies and The Coming of the Messiah are also excellent.
The second section started with The Great Wall of China, which I view as a masterpiece. I would be tempted to call it his best work, except I haven't actually read much of his works yet. Others in this section are about animals and colonialism. Jackals and Arabs is a bit uncomfortable, not sure exactly what it means.
The third section contains some longer stories, in particular the notable stories: A Country Doctor, The Burrow, Josephine the Singer. Two of those are masterpieces. Some of the shorter ones here are like prose poems. The Bridge is probably one of them that Kafka and his friends cackled over.
The fourth section starts with a circus theme that leads in A Hunger Artist, another masterpiece. First Sorrow is another great one. The Whip is a very vivid prose poem. In The Penal Colony is an obvious classic. After that are more great stories especially The Silence of the Sirens, Poseidon and The City Coat of Arms. Some of these later ones have an eternal quality.
Before reading this I had an image of 'Kafkaesque' in my head from popular culture. That might be found in The Trial or Metamorphosis (don't know haven't read them yet) but here there is a lot more to see than that narrow view of Kafka. The other image was of the writer laughing loudly and awakening his neighbours reading these aloud. That I could see in a few but certainly not most. I most enjoyed the stories with an eternal and minimising (almost cosmic horror) feel, but not entirely depressing, like Great Wall.
December 31, 2025
It’s so hard to give one rating to a collection of short stories since naturally they’re going to vary. At its best, thus short story collection felt like watching a train crash in slow motion (I stole this phrase from another reviewer but I honestly can’t find better words for it). At its worst, the stories could be tedious. So I’m giving this collection an in the middle ranking—but honestly even at it’s worse Kafka’s talent and artistry are so evident, it’s hard to even justify my criticisms.
The best of this collection were:
- The entire first section of those tiny story fragments that connected together (from Paradise to The Coming of the Messiah). It was hard to get into the rest of the collection because honestly this part was my favorite, and everything was a slight decrease from there. It’s able to get its message across so well with such sparing language and a handful of images, and I was beyond impressed by this.
- The Cares of a Family Man
- A Country Doctor
- A Hunger Artist
- The Sirens, The Silence of the Sirens, Prometheus, Poseidon (also a series of separate but connevted microscopic fragments of stories; this was just slightly worse than the above example. I don’t have an aversion to his longer works but Kafka is able to convey desolation, adriftness and the sheer feeling of hopelessness SO well in these strung-together collections of smaller works).
- In the Penal Colony
And the worst:
- The Great Wall of China
- The Burrow (I think this was the longest of the collection and I just could not get into it)
- The Snake Charmer/The Snake (these connected together but they just seemed like kind of a nothing burger? I was expecting it to continue and it just didn’t).
- The Top
- Jackals and Arabs
The best of this collection were:
- The entire first section of those tiny story fragments that connected together (from Paradise to The Coming of the Messiah). It was hard to get into the rest of the collection because honestly this part was my favorite, and everything was a slight decrease from there. It’s able to get its message across so well with such sparing language and a handful of images, and I was beyond impressed by this.
- The Cares of a Family Man
- A Country Doctor
- A Hunger Artist
- The Sirens, The Silence of the Sirens, Prometheus, Poseidon (also a series of separate but connevted microscopic fragments of stories; this was just slightly worse than the above example. I don’t have an aversion to his longer works but Kafka is able to convey desolation, adriftness and the sheer feeling of hopelessness SO well in these strung-together collections of smaller works).
- In the Penal Colony
And the worst:
- The Great Wall of China
- The Burrow (I think this was the longest of the collection and I just could not get into it)
- The Snake Charmer/The Snake (these connected together but they just seemed like kind of a nothing burger? I was expecting it to continue and it just didn’t).
- The Top
- Jackals and Arabs
February 25, 2023
This is a collection of Kafka's shorter writing, many of which are not best examples of his work. Perhaps it is because I have not experienced enough during the 16 years of my life to relate to all the pieces in the book. However, there are various extraordinary works of Kafka. A personal favourite is a short story called A Report To The Academy which features anthropomorphism. Having read The Metamorphosis, this piece is perhaps a close relative to The Metamorphosis and should be considered "classic Kafka". Eccentric as always, Kafka does not fail to surprise me with his imagination.
June 19, 2024
Only two people borrowed this book before me - I can guess what they look like.
I could not stand this at all. Skipped a few of the longer stories because the yapping was way too intense. Kafka seemed so scared that his audience wouldn’t get the point that he continually repeats the same boring imagery to try and drill it in. About as deep as a puddle when he thought he was constructing an ocean.
I could not stand this at all. Skipped a few of the longer stories because the yapping was way too intense. Kafka seemed so scared that his audience wouldn’t get the point that he continually repeats the same boring imagery to try and drill it in. About as deep as a puddle when he thought he was constructing an ocean.
February 7, 2025
I'm a big Kafka fan, parasocially so at times. I find myself voraciously devouring whatever I can get my hands on of his. These really early drafts of essays or stories, are just interesting to see. All of his work (largely) is unfinished, but these are scattered imprecise words, culminating in not very much. Still a deeply fascinating and well-written set of words.
April 9, 2025
I love Kafka, and I’m glad I have this in my collection but I feel I’d appreciate this more down the road. Maybe I’ll stick to his short fiction stories. Next I’d like to read the castle but again you have to be in an intellectual state to understand & comprehend what the meaning behind the stories.
January 11, 2024
I liked this anthology, however I found it random and cluttered. I also like other translations better. Some great pieces are in here however that I highly recommend reading for a better understanding of Kafka.
April 11, 2022
Not my first time reading all of these, but I did enjoy the hunger artist and in the penal colony.
February 6, 2023
i love kafka so bad |
favorite work: A Life (page 64)
favorite work: A Life (page 64)
April 26, 2023
The burrow really lost me.
January 27, 2024
he wrote The Hunger Artist for the ed girlies 🩷
May 23, 2024
Wondering if Kafka were alive today, had more access to information, would he have written stories of China and presented Chinese culture the way he did in Great Wall of China?
September 8, 2025
I have been waiting to review because I did not know how to phrase anything new besides what choffing I have already done in my updates.
Maybe the translations are poor, I skimmed which ones were used for which stories at the back but didn’t bother to cross reference but DAMN I could not enjoy this book through the grammatical gymnastics that the majority of these stories preform. So, many, commas. King of run on sentences. I felt like I found myself reading one page and then three pages later reading nearly an identical page. There were some stories I really enjoyed (The Burrow, ironically as other reviews hated it) and some I hated with a passion and actually dnf (looking at you, The Headmaster).
THAT BEING SAID I found Kafka’s really short stories (the few pagers) and maxims/proverbs/paragraph stories quite brilliant which was the redeeming factor of this work. Forever grateful for the wise words of advice in the introduction or else I may have never finished this. I would still like to try one of Kafka’s novels, maybe I’ll continue with le proces en francais to try another language and its translation. However, Kafkesque just may not resonate with moi.
Maybe the translations are poor, I skimmed which ones were used for which stories at the back but didn’t bother to cross reference but DAMN I could not enjoy this book through the grammatical gymnastics that the majority of these stories preform. So, many, commas. King of run on sentences. I felt like I found myself reading one page and then three pages later reading nearly an identical page. There were some stories I really enjoyed (The Burrow, ironically as other reviews hated it) and some I hated with a passion and actually dnf (looking at you, The Headmaster).
THAT BEING SAID I found Kafka’s really short stories (the few pagers) and maxims/proverbs/paragraph stories quite brilliant which was the redeeming factor of this work. Forever grateful for the wise words of advice in the introduction or else I may have never finished this. I would still like to try one of Kafka’s novels, maybe I’ll continue with le proces en francais to try another language and its translation. However, Kafkesque just may not resonate with moi.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews