The metamorphosis

Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of travelling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. In her new translation, Susan Bernofsky strives to capture both the humour and the humanity in this macabre tale, underscoring the ways in which Gregor Samsa's grotesque metamorphosis is just the physical manifestation of his longstanding spiritual impoverishment.