Tab Article

ratings: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Genre: Literary Fiction / Absurdist Fiction / Existentialist Novel

Book Review:
''The Trial'' is a nightmare you can't wake up from. It begins with one of the most famous and effective opening lines in literature: ''Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong, he was arrested one fine morning.'' From that moment, we are plunged into a world of inexplicable dread. Josef K. spends the entire novel trying to find out what he's accused of, but the court is inaccessible, the rules are unknown, and everyone he meets is either corrupt, useless, or part of the system. It's a terrifying portrait of the individual crushed by an impersonal, irrational bureaucracy. It's also darkly funny at times, in a desperate sort of way. The novel was unfinished and published after Kafka's death, and the ending is one of the most devastating in literature. It's a book that gets under your skin and stays there. A masterpiece of the 20th century.