The Metamorphosis

Gregor Samsa wakes up to find that he has turned into an enormous insect.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka begins on that one impossible morning, but what stands out is how matter-of-factly everyone reacts. At first Gregor mainly worries about his train and his job as a travelling salesman, because his family lives on his salary. Behind his bedroom door, his parents and his sister wait for an explanation. What follows is a story about a family that, bit by bit, has to deal with someone who is no longer useful, and about the room that keeps getting smaller.

A short classic of fewer than a hundred pages that you finish in one evening and that stays with you for days. The undertone is oppressive and darkly comic at the same time, because Kafka describes the absurd with the calm of a civil servant. Anyone who has ever felt superfluous at work or at home will recognise more here than expected. This English edition is a handy paperback of just over eighty pages, a lovely introduction if you have not read Kafka yet.