{"product_id":"kafkaesque-ten-great-writers-translate-the-twentieth-century-9780008834302","title":"Kafkaesque: Ten Great Writers Translate the Twentieth Century","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Maia Hruska\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Literary\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e'A book to underline endlessly, to carry around until battered, and then to tell all your friends to buy because you're too reluctant to give up your own copy. A wonder’ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePolly Barton\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eBrings a welcome freshness of vision and a dashing style … provocative and illuminating' \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e________________________________\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat happens to a writer's work when it's translated – specifically, what happens if his name is Franz Kafka?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter Kafka died young and unknown, a German-speaking Jew in Prague, ten writers rescued him from oblivion. For years, long before he became a much misused adjective, Kafka existed mostly through their wildly different readings of his words.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMany of his first translators would later be counted among the greatest thinkers and writers of the twentieth century – and they all found in Kafka’s writing a guiding light through the dark of their own tumultuous lives. Primo Levi translated Kafka into Italian from the German he had learned in Auschwitz; Milena Jesenská lovingly into Czech before she too was deported to the camps; Bruno Schulz into Polish before being shot by an SS officer; and Jorge Luis Borges into Spanish as he slowly went blind. Vladimir Nabokov annotated \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Metamorphosis\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e in exile, having undergone his own transformation from native to foreigner, while Kafka’s translators back in Russia were condemned to perpetual anonymity by the Soviet censor.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWith inventiveness, spirit and wit, Maïa Hruska has written a celebration of the impossible art of translation, and a portrait of the tragic, absurd twentieth century that Kafka so presciently described.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e‘Dazzling … one fine day, you open a book by an unknown writer, and a charge of pure talent blows you away’ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eLa Tribune\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47974419497111,"sku":"9780008834302","price":360.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780008834302.webp?v=1783143482","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/kafkaesque-ten-great-writers-translate-the-twentieth-century-9780008834302","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}