Amerika

The Missing Person: A New Translation by Mark Harman Based on the Restored Text

By: Franz Kafka

Narrated by: George Guidall

A Brilliant new translation of the great writer's least Kafkaesque novel, based on a German-language text that was produced by a team of international scholars and that is more faithful to Kafka's original manuscript than anything we have had before.

With the same expert balance of precision and nuance that marked his translation of Kafka's The Castle, the award-winning translator Mark Harman now restores the humor and particularity of language to Amerika.

Here is the story of 17-year-old Karl Rossman, who, following a scandal involving a housemaid, is banished by his parents to America. With unquenchable optimism and in the company of two comic-sinister companions, he throws himself into misadventure after misadventure, eventually landing in Oklahoma, where a career in the theater beckons.

Like much of Kafka's work, Amerika remained unfinished at the time of his death. Though we can never know how Kafka planned to end the novel, Mark Harman's superb translation allows us to appreciate as closely as possible, what Kafka did commit to the page.

©2008 Preface and Translation © 2008 Mark Harmon. Publisher's note © 2008 Shocken Books a Division of Random House, Inc. This translation is based on the German language text , Der Verschollebe Kritische Ausguabe, edited by Jost Schillemeit, published by S.Fisher Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, in 1983. (c) 1983 by Schoken Books, a division of Random House,Inc. Amerika was originally published in German in different form by Kurt Wolff Verlag A.G.,Munich ,in 1927, (P)2009 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"Semantically accurate to an admirable degree, faithful to Kafka's nuances, responsive to the tempo of his sentences and to the larger music of his paragraph construction. For the general reader or for the student, it will be the translation of preference for some time to come." (J. M. Coetzee, The New York Review of Books)

so so

I am a fan of kafka and want to read all of his work. I found this one to be a bit to slow to keep attention.

Kafka's least noir, but still not for everyone

Kafka's writing style is meticulously descriptive and thorough, so it will strike some as boring. His genius lies in his ability to effortlessly turn the mundane into the surreal. This story follows a highly plausible trajectory, and is entirely believable for its period and context. The protagonist's thoughts and actions are entirely rational, yet the reader/listener will often realize the total absurdity of the positions he finds himself in. This is a coming-of-age tale that could easily have been the genesis of the concept, "Truth is stranger than fiction."

I was sorry that the story had such an abrupt ending, and could have listened to it continue indefinitely. Unfortunately, it seems that K never finished this worthy tome. I know that a close associate of his added an ending that was published... perhaps that would be more conclusive and satisfying even if not from the great mind of Kafka.

Poor narration

The importance of an expert narrator can not be overstated. Wish the narration matched the novel

An immigrant's story

The story of an immigrant from his arrival in New York and all the struggles he faces.

Outstanding

This is a great audiobook. The narrator's tone works for the source material. Very engaging performance to match this story.