Author:Franz Kafka,Malcolm Pasley,Malcolm Pasley
Drawing directly on original manuscripts, this collection comprises the major short stories published after Kafka’s death. It includes The Great Wall of China, Blumfeld, An Elderly Bachelor, Investigations of a Dog and his great sequences of aphorisms, with fables and parables on subjects ranging from the legend of Prometheus to the Tower of Babel. Allegorical, disturbing and possessing a dream-like clarity, these writings are quintessential Kafka.
Rare and luminous talent...an outstanding collection
—— Jem Poster , GuardianContemporary Australia lives and breathes, shudders, groans and even scratches without a trace of inhibition throughout these seven vivid narratives from one of the finest of contemporary writers
—— Irish TimesGraceful and unsettling... Malouf's prose is invariably elegant
—— David Flusfeder , Financial TimesA master of the incisive, seamless, turns-on-a-sixpence short story...this collection is a jewel
—— Kate Saunders , The TimesTender and luminous tales...It is his rich landscapes for which Malouf is most often praised and this collection contains some of the most evocative descriptions of the Australian continent
—— Chitra Ramaswamy , Scotland on SundayContemplative, ethereal, sharply perceptive, this collection is a fascinating exploration of the inner worlds that separate and connect us all
—— Mary Fitzgerald , New StatesmanMalouf, always so precise in his characterisation, so poetic in his evocations of nature and so haunting in his insight into loneliness and frustrated love, is a writer to treasure
—— Francis Quinn , Literary ReviewAt times unsettling in the intensity of their vision, Malouf's stories provide a deeply intelligent meditation on the unknowability of the self
—— Anna Scott , ObserverColours and landscapes are evoked in language that, at once lush and direct, is in itself a pleasure and a reminder that Malouf is also a poet of considerable talent
—— Aamer Hussein , IndependentHis writing here has a fine descriptive delicacy and sensory exactness that act as guarantees of the stories' truth and the authenticity of the experiences they embody
—— Tom Deveson , Sunday TimesMalouf deals with both the vast and the seemingly unimportant... He does it with biting wit, elegance and a rare, uncluttered honesty
—— Chris Dolan , Saturday HeraldPoignant and wonderful story...concentrates, without effort, all Malouf's themes...it needs to be read
—— Prospect