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The Castle

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About this listen

On his deathbed, Franz Kafka asked that all his unpublished manuscripts be burned. Fortunately, his request was ignored, allowing such works as The Trial to earn recognition among the literary masterpieces of the 20th century. This brilliant translation of The Castle captures comedic elements and visual imagery that earlier interpretations missed.

A traveler known only as K. is promised a job as Land-Surveyor by officials of the Castle. But when K. arrives in town to claim his position, he learns that owing to a clerical error, his services aren’t needed after all. Seeking an explanation, K. endures increasingly frustrating setbacks as he strives in vain to simply make contact with someone—anyone—from the Castle.

Saturated with absurdist humor, this haunting novel has fascinated and puzzled listeners throughout the world. Some critics praise it as the century’s great religious parable, while others interpret it as indisputably antireligious.

©1958, 1968, 1982 Alfred A. Knopf (P)2004 Recorded Books Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Witty
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It's a completely bizzare chaos that gives you no satisfaction and no conclusion of the story. Yet I couldn't stop listening to it. If you like Swift, Orwell or Beckett, you will love it. If you like cliffhangers and stories that head somewhere, it would probably drive you mad...

I really liked it and don't really know why

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This story is like an elaborate practical joke played on the reader and the world.

Strangeness

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If you're like me, then you'll be tortured with all the pointless, random, incoherent, and sometimes enjoyable, bits of unfinished madness which makes up this work... It was a weird experience... Something to be endured!

And what's the point?!

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