This is a quirky illustrated novel about the life of Franz Kafka. Admittedly I don't know much about his life, and I didn't fact check the work, but taken as a little story it's entertaining. It was not a traditional graphic novel, at least not the Kindle edition I read, but more like a story with illustrations throughout. The illustrations are simple, but effective. If you are a Kafka enjoyer, or interested in learning more about his life through a humorous, narrative format, check this out.

A fun and very accessible short biography of Kafka with doodles/drawings throughout. Even though it is concise and brief, I feel like it well encapsulated his life and career. The spectre of his father looms large over his life - always comparing himself to his angry domineering father and feeling that his father was the standard by which the world measured him. Throughout, we learn about his phobias - to schools, mirrors, bad teeth, commitment. Kafka comes across as someone who is not comfortable "in his own skin." The author, Mahler, effectively utilizes diaries, writings and interviews to tell his story. He also included reviews of Kafka's writing. One of my favorite interviews included at the end, was Max Brod (a friend of his) who was interviewed in 1968 about how misunderstood Kafka was and is. There are also more in depth citations and a bibliography at the end of the book. Not only was the information really good but it also evoked a feeling about who Kafka was and his life. Extremely well done.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

Wonderfully odd, just as Kafka himself was. Pleasant and quick read, full of illustrations so well suited to Kafka’s life story. I’d highly recommend it to anybody who has ever read anything by Kafka.

I really enjoyed the illustrations and they were super quirky and cute! I also knew very little about kafka, so this was really interesting to read.

However, I had to DNF this book as there were so many typos errors and missing words/letters that it took away from my enjoyment of reading this book fully. With the book being set to be published in June, I feel like the errors in the arc were slightly either a mistake or was overlooked by the publisher. Or maybe it was the copy I got. Either way, I hope these issues gets resolved by the publisher and therefore makes a more cohesive book to read and enjoy.

With the 30% that I read, I would rate this book 3/5 as the book was quirky and sometimes there were little phrases that I totally related to. For example, the quote: “by crying during examinations, especially maths.” about when talking about surviving school. This was totally relatable 😂😂😂

An intriguing linking of visual and prose — enjoyable for Kafka readers, those who appreciate cartoons, and readers who love the literary and absurd.

“At first glance, Kafka was a healthy young man, if strangely quiet, observing, reserved.”
(Max Brod)

I have to admit that I mostly know F. Kafka through excerpts of his love correspondence. That had left me curious about the author and about the man, as in these his sensitivity and sensibility to the world seemed deep and peculiar.

That short biography was for me the opportunity to have a first glimpse about the author and the man. I loved the minimalist and raw graphic –that I found very appropriate to the “character” and how he saw his surroundings. The text mixes Kafka’s works and correspondence, interviews from people who knew him and comments from the author. How the all is structured is almost like a tale, which fits that special way of thinking that apparently inhabited Kafka. His diseases, both mental and physical, are omnipresent, of course, like a wire connecting everything (work, moods, love, self-depreciation, etc).
It was, for me, a great way to start my journey with F.K. and I will, without a doubt, dig into the extensive bibliography in the future.

I've only read a few of Kafka’s short stories before, but I’m very interested in exploring more of his work after reading this book. Most definitely the 100-page letter he wrote to his father.

Regarding the drawing style? I learned that the author is an animation filmmaker, and I’d love to see his animation films. Actually, I’d love to watch this book as a bizarre short film. The movement might capture Kafka’s character a lot better.

This odd and wonderful little book is as weird as I imagine Kafka to have been. The drawings are simple and whimsical and the content is appropriately dark. You will understand Kafka's life and major works if you read this. I absolutely loved how his works were described! It seems maybe Kafka also found his stories hard to understand. Even when I don't understand them, I'm always pulled into Kafka's stories, and I think this author feels the same. I highly recommend this to anyone who doesn't understand Kafka and for everyone who loves Kafka and his imagination. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

I've never read anything about Kafka beyond his short biography, but I'm grateful for this ARC because I learned some new things about him. The illustrations were great and did a great job of showing the story in a more unique way.

Short, comics-ish bio of Kafka that doesn't quite satisfy or illuminate any more than you'd get from reading his Wiki. Mahler's minimalist art is definitely an acquired taste and didn't work for me in this one. I didn't learn anything new about Kafka I didn't already know, and it's not like I've read a great deal about the writer, I just feel like either there's not that much to know about him or Mahler didn't go above and beyond for his research to bring the lay reader anything new. A weak bio of Kafka - if you're after a comics bio of the writer, I'd rec this one instead: Franz Kafka by David Zane Mairowitz and Robert Crumb.

Firstly, I would like to thank the publisher for the advanced copy. I enjoyed the illustrations tremendously as they convey lots of meaning in their simplicity. The writing part, however, felt short for me as it was more of a collage of Kafka's letters than the author's proper writing. I think I would like to see Mahler's own writing shine more and be more detailed than reading through Kafka's letters after every sentence. Most of it I already knew as I have been to Kafka's Museum in Prague and read a handful of snippets of his letters. For people unfamiliar with his story and work, this might be a fun bit and a short introduction to him and his mind.

i love kafka but i might have never read his biography so this was a great summary. he didn’t feel like a very pleasant person 😃
loved the art too.

thanks to netgalley for free copy!

Overall, the book was decently informative over Kafka, and his various interpersonal relationships. By using very unique illustrations, as well as excerpts from his various letters and other writings, insight is given about Kafa and his life.

The illustrations are simple, and sometimes hard to decipher what is happening within them. The information presented to the reader lacks much depth. The text makes an attempt to give a broad view of Kafka's life. This is the weakest point of the novel. The story of Kafka and his life become simplified to the point that very little information is told about him. It was an interesting read, but left me feeling like there was a lot missing.

First of all Thanks to Nicolas Mahler and Alexander Booth and The late Great Pushkin Press (i have many works by Pushkin didn't read any yet lol) For allowing all the readers of NetGalley to read this beautiful Graphic Biography of Franz Kafka, i am not sure if it's still available for grabs, i didn't take that long to finish it, so it's probably still there.

<blockquote>Perhaps i should tell you a bit more about the evening, i was tired, empty, bored, beatable, apathetic, and from the outset wanted nothing but my bed.</blockquote>
It's Divine Poetry i finish this today for 3 hours i did nothing but read the rest of this biography, i was sick with the cold, my body feels weak, taken a medication that usually puts me to sleep but my body resisted this time, and so we read, enjoying the company of kindred soul in Kafka, all the quotes i ll share in this review i feel too all the time, Unlike Kafka i don't have a terminal disease to take me out, my journey might be longer, but it will not be more pleasant sadly, because these feelings we share together only get worse the older we grow.

<blockquote>I am not doing well, what with all the effort i need to keep myself alive and sane, i could have built the pyramids, Franz.</blockquote>
as you guessed this review will be a little personal but fuck it, i feel like talking, because right now i don't feel alone, in a melancholic way.

<blockquote>You can't achieve anything with this kind of body.
I shall have to get used to its continuous failings.</blockquote>
Each time my father asks me to marry making the offer more enticing each time, i refuse, and i think in my head, since his reason is to keep the bloodline continue, i don't think this bloodline should continue, what's so good about it? why does he think that his bloodline is so good it should survive the trials of time? Me and His Father are the only readers in his vast family, what he does is sit all day watching stupid football, and argues about things he is too ignorant to even begin to comprehend, I think bad father is one more thing i share with Kafka lol

<blockquote>Youth's meaninglessness Fear of youth, fear of meaninglessness, of the meaningless rise of an inhuman life, this is Kafka's youth.</blockquote>
It's funny i always tell my older friends i can't wait to be old too, and i always fear that they might think i am making fun of their age, but really it's not, i really really just want to get there closer to the end, Youth is the age of expectation, the expectation you have for yourself, and the expectations the world puts on you and those around you put on you.
There is lies melancholy and depression, your body can't take on that huge weight you have put on yourself, it can't, it can't handle that character, it can't handle your goals, and the only way to even feel a little bit alive is to either have another unattainable goal that you think maybe you can reach it with your talent, or to let go of all of it, and just enjoy the rest.

<blockquote>I don't hide from people because i want to live quietly, but because i want to expire quietly.</blockquote>
You know i actually like for Kafka that he died so early, all his sisters died in the holocaust in the gas chambers, imagine that delicate soul going through the motions of being in a concentration camp, he was greedy for solitude, imagine not having any resemblance of solitude in a concentration camp, it's would have been way too much, mental break down too much...

<blockquote>He meant something seriously or whether he was joking Franz was particularly fond of straddling the line between seriousness and jest and did so with a high degree of virtuosity.</blockquote>
Again another thing we share, that i don't think anyone would really understand, the joking instead of being serious, it's literally where i feel most comfortable, and i do realize it might come out as awkward, because the other don't get it, but it's my comfort zone, it's what makes me able to deal with people in general.

<blockquote>The only complaint of Kafka's he recalls is that there are so many stations on the way to your death, it goes so slowly.</blockquote>
I totally get how Kafka faced Death stoically, it was over it was the end, When i was dying at one point i didn't shed a single tear, and when i survived i wept, did i weep because of the final feeling of loneliness or did i weep because it wasn't over who knows, we are going anyway...

<blockquote>I do not think not to have known Kafka is an advantage.
- Max Brod</blockquote>
Max thanks for being that man's friend, thanks for not burning his unfinished works like he requested he wasn't appreciated in life, but we all enjoyed his works sadly after his passing, and thanks for having such a high opinion of him, i might not have found my Max Brod yet, but maybe one day.

First of all, Thank You Netgalley for the ARC granted to me. I wasn't expecting nothing from this book, but ended up bgeing a good reading, way different from traditional biographies, which I find that has matched with the public person which is studied here. Kafka was an unusual figure and I got to know a little bit more about him in this narrative.

I cannot be more glad to get this
ARC from NetGalley.

I love, love, love it to bits and I genuinely feel that Franz Kafka is my spirit human! The way he is so relatable in so many ways.

This book is perfectly Kafkaesque in every sense of the word. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it with all these drawings, excerpts from Kafka's work and in terms of his life story.

And I truly Ioved the dark humour, sarcasm and the irony of it all. It makes you think, it makes you laugh, and it makes you sad. In short, a complete package of a book that makes you want to read everything by KAFKA!

I had not engaged with Kafka beyond reading a few of his texts years ago in school (and an abandoned attempt of reading Letter to the Father a while ago). This is a strange little biography, yet it's highly entertaining. The illustrations mesh very well with the flow of the text. A thing which I found strange was the way this biography flows from, well a biography, to page long retellings of some of his fictional texts. This means there are spoilers for Kafka’s texts (fine by me). However, the transition between Kafka’s life and Kafka’s fiction wasn't as smooth as it could have been.
I did greatly enjoy the tone of this illustrated biography. It was witty, dry, and created a very melodramatic Kafka through contrasting his self-critical (loathing) writing with descriptions by his contemporaries and the illustrations. I would not call this a graphic novel or comic. There is text and then this text is broken up by the illustrations. The text is the main thing you are reading. The illustrations do a wonderful job of adding to the text, but they cannot really stand on their own most of the time. I cannot attest to the accuracy of the biography, but it does include a list of sources so I feel like it should be good. I’d recommend this to everyone who has a slight interest in Kafka as a person and a writer. It is a fun and quick read that serves as a good introduction to Kafka. It definitely piqued my interest in reading more of his prose.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this digtital ARC. All opinions expressed are my own and were not influenced.

I really enjoyed this. The drawings were a delight and I love learning a little more about who Kafka was. Great read.

“You can’t achieve anything with this kind of body. I shall have to get used to its continuous failings.”

Nicholas Mahler in this unique graphic novel tells the life story of Franz Kafka.

This felt like such a strange yet interesting way to read his biography. The timeline of events which took place in Kafka’s life are told through snippets of dialogue and viewpoints from Kafka perspective.

What I liked were the simple illustrations which spoke volumes as his life story was being told.

His iconic works are discussed and critic reviews are shared along the way, his own battle with self doubt and how he tried to overcome his writer’s block.

This was a unique way to explore his life which made for an enjoyable read.

This is a very artistic presentation of the life of Kafka. It is not an easy read as some of the phrases are rather advanced. So, maybe it is more suitable for KS3 students.