“Kafka, Volume 3. The Years of Youth”, Reiner Stach

To do justice to this Kafka, Volume 3. The Years of Youthwe must repeat what we have already said about the first two volumes of this monumental biography in more ways than one and which will be a reference for a long time: exceptional, exciting, reads like a novel. The German Reiner Stach once again mixes rigor, erudition and in-depth knowledge of the life and work of the author of Metamorphosis. Qualities crowned by a high sense of narration – an exceptional faculty on the part of a biographer. Taking us this time to 1911, Reiner Stach introduces us to the context of Kafka’s birth (1883-1924) in Prague in a Jewish family of small merchants, his childhood and studies, his complex friendship with Max Brod, his coming to writing, his relationship with women, etc. Prodigiously alive, Reiner Stach goes back in time since the defenestration of Prague in 1618, embraces the era and opens all the doors. Without ever boring us.

Kafka, Volume 3. The Years of Youth

★★★★

Reiner Stach, Le Cherche midi, Paris, 2024, 800 pages

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