The Trial

A novel written in 1914 and 1915. It follows Josef K., a bank clerk who is arrested and prosecuted by a mysterious, unreachable authority. Neither he nor the reader ever learns what crime he has committed. As Josef navigates an absurd legal system filled with bizarre encounters and inexplicable procedures, his case consumes his life while remaining perpetually unresolved. The novel, never completed by Kafka, was published posthumously in 1925.