Georg, it’s been dog’s ages since I read the three Kafka novels. The first time I was in Prague, I tried to get from the river to the castle without a map. After some considerable time failing to get very high up on the hill, I thought Kafka was more of a realist than people give him credit for. With Amerika, I thought he was grasping at postcards, rather than describing convincingly. Also the other title - The Vanished - isn’t quite as menacing in this context. The protagonist may very well have just joined the circus.

You Faulkner and Joyce connoisseurs out there, consider what I mean - consider accepting this S?ddeutsche Zeitung publishing project at face value and actually bothering to read either “Sanctuary” or “Portrait of the Artist” in German! The very thought! It’s not just what the author says, but how he says it, meaning the language, diction, syntax, etc. that he uses. I use these two just as extreme examples to illustrate the point, but there’s no doubt the principle applies to all serious literary authors. Clearly, then, the Faulkner-auf-deutsch exercise is only for those German-speakers who haven’t learned to read English. Otherwise, it’s a waste of paper and time - reach for your original English-language editions instead, whoever may have been the publisher. The newspaper’s editors therefore might have considered sharpening their focus, sharpening the value-added that they really can provide, by restricting this book series to German literature only.