Is that Kafka?: 99 Finds

About the Author:

Reiner Stach, born in 1951 in Saxony, is the author of the definitive biography of Kafka. The first two volumes, published by Princeton University Press, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly (“superb”), Library Journal (“a monumental accomplishment”), Kirkus (“essential”), and Booklist (“masterful”). “I can’t say enough about the liveliness and richness of Stach’s book,” Michael Dirda exclaimed in The Washington Post. “Every page feels excited, dynamic, utterly alive.”

In 2010 Kurt Beals was a finalist for the Best Translated Book Award for Anja Utler's engulf–enkindle, and in 2012 he won the first ever German Book Office Translation Prize. His translation of Regina Ullmann's The Country Road was published by New Directions in 2015.

Review:

“A Kafka bag full of surprises.”
- Der Tagesspiegel

“A playful new book from Reiner Stach, one that pulls together 99 facts and observations from the Czech author’s life, all with the purpose of clearing the brush of falsehoods about the man that linger in the public imagination.”
- Jonathon Sturgeon, Flavorwire

“If, like me, you are wary of delving into a three-volume account of the life of an ascetic and self-tormenting insurance lawyer, Stach has by some inexplicable thunderbolt of inspiration supplemented his enormous undertaking with a separate volume of biographical detritus, which he suggestively calls ‘counter-images’, titled Is that Kafka? 99 Finds.”
- Morten Hoi Jensen, LA Review of Books

“Lucidly translated from the German by Kurt Beals, ingeniously designed, illustrated with photographs of Kafka and the people he knew, of places he visited and art he admired, and with facsimiles of newspaper articles, manuscripts, notes, and letters, Is That Kafka? is a handsome volume.”
- Francine Prose, New York Review of Books

“It is fitting that such a tricksy little maze of a book would bloom from the life of Kafka, whose work operates better in smaller spaces.”
- Propeller

“A mishmash of ephemera, curiosities and confessionals, the finds range from the banal to the deeply personal, yet collectively paint as engaging and illustrative a portrait of the artist as any I’ve read.”
- Pasha Malla, The Globe and Mail

“A beautiful display of unexpected wonders and curiosities, each one glittering with light from a source that will never be understood.”
- Jeffrey Zuckerman, The New Republic

“Reiner Stach has curated a collection of artifacts from the author’s life in his latest book, “Is that Kafka? 99 Finds.” The book, translated from the German by Kurt Beals, is a crowd-pleasing encore to Stach’s monumental three-volume biography of the writer. Along with minimal commentary, he submits ninety-nine numbered exhibition items―documents, photographs, objects, scribbles, and doodles―for our consideration. The result is a box of fancy Austro-Hungarian chocolates...”
- Avi Steinberg, The New Yorker

“Each turn Stach makes adds nuance to his skillfully collaged portrait of Kafka.”
- The Quarterly Conversation

““Is that Kafka?” indirectly contributes to an on going scholarly project, in Europe and America, to revisit many of the assumptions about the writer and his work, in effect, to move beyond the myths and clichés.”
- Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

“This collection, original and entertaining, is a masterful, exciting mix of diligent research and sophisticated literary gossip.”
- Neues Deutschland

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