{"product_id":"9780008768614-kafkaesque","title":"Kafkaesque","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTen Great Writers Translate the Twentieth Century\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A book to underline endlessly, to dog-ear, to carry around until battered, and then to tell all your friends to buy because you're too reluctant to give up your own copy. A wonder’ \u003c\/strong\u003ePolly Barton\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003e            \u003cstrong\u003e‘Dazzling … one fine day, you open a book by an unknown writer, and a charge of pure talent blows you away’ \u003c\/strong\u003e            \u003cem\u003eLa Tribune\u003c\/em\u003e          \u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003e________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003eWhat happens to a writer's work when it's translated – specifically, what happens if his name is Franz Kafka?\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003eAfter Kafka died young and unknown, a German-speaking Jew in Prague, ten writers rescued him from oblivion. For years, long before he became a much misused adjective, Kafka existed mostly through their wildly different readings of his words.\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003eMany of his first translators would later be counted among the greatest thinkers and writers of the twentieth century – and they all found in Kafka’s writing a guiding light through the dark of their own tumultuous lives. Primo Levi translated Kafka into Italian from the German he had learned in Auschwitz; Milena Jesenská lovingly into Czech before she too was deported to the camps; Bruno Schulz into Polish before being shot by an SS officer; and Jorge Luis Borges into Spanish as he slowly went blind. Vladimir Nabokov annotated \u003cem\u003eThe Metamorphosis\u003c\/em\u003e in exile, having undergone his own transformation from native to foreigner, while Kafka’s translators back in Russia were condemned to perpetual anonymity by the Soviet censor.\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003eWith inventiveness, spirit and wit, Maïa Hruska has written a celebration of the impossible art of translation, and a portrait of the tragic, absurd twentieth century that Kafka so presciently described.\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003e            \u003cstrong\u003e'An elegant reflection on how the act of translation itself brings about Kafkaesque diversions'\u003c\/strong\u003e            \u003cem\u003eTLS\u003c\/em\u003e          \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57599062114678,"sku":"9780008768614","price":14.21,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_40640290.jpg?v=1775729294","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780008768614-kafkaesque","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}