Investigations of a Dog: And Other Creatures
Investigations of a Dog: And Other Creatures
By Franz Kafka
Translated by Michael Hofmann
A masterful new translation by Michael Hofmann of some of Kafka's most fantastical and visionary short fiction
"Hofmann and Kafka. . . provide one with rich intellectual companionship."—Diana Darke, The Times Literary Supplement
"Hofmann’s translation is invaluable—it achieves what translations are supposedly unable to do: it is at once ‘loyal’ and ‘beautiful.’"—New Republic
"This New Directions release of Investigations of a Dog provides an opportunity to reconsider many of Kafka’s greatest stories in a new book, with beautiful cover design, and to reexamine how a brilliant mind performed under spiritually backbreaking circumstances."—Nathan Scott McNamara, Los Angeles Review of Books
Animals, strange beasts, bureaucrats, businessmen, and nightmares populate this collection of stories by Franz Kafka. These matchless short works, all unpublished during Kafka’s lifetime, range from the gleeful dialogue between a cat and a mouse in "Little Fable" to the absurd humor of "Investigations of a Dog", from the elaborate waking nightmare of "Building the Great Wall of China" to the creeping unease of "The Burrow", where a nameless creature’s labyrinthine hiding place turns into a trap of fear and paranoia.
Paperback
239 pages
New Directions, 2017
Originally published in 1931
5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
ISBN 9780811226899
Short Story, Psychological Fiction