The Trial

The classic translation of Kafka's great work of psychological horror

The terrifying tale of Joseph K, a respectable functionary in a bank, who is suddenly arrested and must defend his innocence against a charge about which he can get no information. A nightmare vision of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the mad agendas of twentieth-century totalitarian regimes.

Joseph K is arrested without charge. From that moment, every part of his life belongs to the Court.

Rediscover Kafka’s classic work of psychological horror.
On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K, a respectable bank official, is suddenly arrested. No charge is explained. No warrant is produced. He is allowed to continue his ordinary life, yet from that moment every part of it is touched by an opaque and unreachable Court.
As K tries to defend himself, he is drawn into humiliating interviews, evasive lawyers and a legal system whose rules remain impossible to grasp. His search for clarity becomes a nightmare of delay, accusation and power without explanation.
Kafka gives the nightmare a plain face: rooms, papers, interviews, officials and rules that appear almost reasonable until they close around Joseph K. The result is a psychological horror story in which the law is everywhere, and understanding it is always just out of reach.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PHILLIPE SANDS