Kafka: The Early Years

Shelley Frisch *81 has just translated the third and final volume of Reiner Stach’s definitive biography, telling the story of Franz Kafka’s birth through the beginning of his professional and literary career. The biography provides a colorful picture of pre-World War I Prague and tells of German-Jewish Kafka’s childhood experiences of anti-Semitism, nationalism, and his passion for new technologies such as movies and airplanes. Frisch has also translated Kafka: The Decisive Years, and Kafka: The Years of Insight.