A German-language writer born in Prague (1883–1924), Franz Kafka is one of the central figures of twentieth-century European literature. Born into a Jewish family of the Prague bourgeoisie, he spent his entire working life as a lawyer at an insurance company while producing a body of work that has become foundational to modern thought: Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis, 1915), Der Process (The Trial, posthumous, 1925), Das Schloss (The Castle, posthumous, 1926) and Der Verschollene (Amerika, posthumous, 1927), all published by his friend Max Brod.
