A Penguin Classic
The Castle is the story of K., the unwanted land surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home. As he encounters dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, and reason and nonsense, K.'s struggles in the absurd, labyrinthine world where he finds himself seem to reveal an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence. Kafka began The Castle in 1922 and it was never finished, yet this, the last of his three great novels, draws fascinating conclusions that make it feel strangely complete.
J. A. Underwood (translator; 1930-2018) was recognized by the Society of Authors for his translation of The Castle and has translated a wide variety of modern authors, among them Elias Canetti, Jean-Paul Sartre, Julien Green, and Alain Robbe-Grillet.
John Zilcosky (introduction and notes) is a recipient of a 2022 Guggenheim fellowship in literary criticism and a German and comparative literature professor at the University of Toronto.