Kafka's Last Trial

Winner of the 2020 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature"e;Dramatic and illuminating[R]aises momentous questions about nationality, religion, literature, and even the Holocaust."e; Adam Kirsch, The AtlanticWhen Franz Kafka died in 1924, his loyal friend Max Brod could not bring himself to fulfill Kafkas last instruction: to burn his remaining manuscripts. Instead, Brod devoted his life to championing Kafkas work, rescuing his legacy from both obscurity and physical destruction. Nearly a century later, an international legal battle erupted to determine which country could claim ownership: the Jewish state, where Kafka dreamed of living, or Germany, where Kafkas three sisters perished in the Holocaust? Benjamin Balint offers a gripping account of the controversial trial in Israeli courtsbrimming with dilemmas legal, ethical, and politicalthat determined the fate of Kafkas manuscripts.