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The Trial

Penguin Classics

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The Trial

Written by: Franz Kafka, Idris Parry - introduction, Idris Parry - translator
Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, winner of the 2019 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis - an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life - including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door - becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.

 Absurdist Classics Dystopian Genre Fiction Political Psychological Science Fiction

Critic Reviews

The Dante of the Twentieth Century (W. H. Auden)
This compelling, prophetic novel anticipates the insanity of modern bureaucracy and the coming of totalitarianism (The Daily Telegraph)
It is the fate and perhaps the greatness of that work that it offers everything and confirms nothing (Albert Camus)
It was Kafka who made me understand that one can write differently (Gabriel García Márquez)
All stars
Most relevant
I was curious to Read the book since it's a classic and recommend, but if I had to read it , it's sure I would have never made it to the end. it's narration of KOBNA HOLBROOK-SMITH that I was able to finish the book.

regarding the book: to the simple minded reader like me, it might be a very boring read . But as whole when you reach the end it doesn't seems to be a waste of time...

about story: for me the element of confusion was heavy. In the end when 'K' s heart was stabbed, his whole ordeal with the courts in the attics...was like a cat chasing the light, the advocate ,the artist, Lanny, buck, the Priest.
'K' was accused. He never accepted the guilt, he was trying to create a defence in front of never visible Court but omnipresent investigation of nameless offence.

audible made it readable

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the narrator kept changing the voices of characters. Joseph k had a different voice in chapter 1 than in chapter 2 and his female impersonations are atrocitious

Pathetic narration

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