Franz Kafka: The Missing (America)

New Czech edition of the unfinished novel by Prague native Franz Kafka (1883-1924). The most famous, world-renowned representative of German literary Prague, one of the most important novelists of world literature of the 20th century. Emil Utitz wrote about Kafka: "What sticks in my memory is absolutely not individual statements or events, but an almost touching image of a slim, tall, boyish person who looked so quiet, gentle and almost saintly, who was kind and smiled somewhat shyly, who willingly recognized anyone's merits and yet was always somehow distant and foreign."

Kafka's novel The Missing was not published during the author's lifetime. It was published by his friend and first editor Max Brod in 1927 from the estate - like Proces a Zamek before. This novel, like the other two, was preserved in the form of an unfinished manuscript. Our new translation is based on the critical edition of the novel, which was published in German in the version of the original manuscript in 1983. The novel The Missing was published for a long time under the title Amerika, which Brod himself gave it, referring to the fact that in conversations with Kafka they called it: Amerika - A novel, an American novel. However, Kafka never used the name "America" ​​in his writings, he always calls it "Missing". This title of his must be respected, among other things, because it undoubtedly expresses the essential meaning of the work - the story of a person who is lost in the world.