A Hunger Artist and Other Stories — Franz Kafka

Kafka published two collections of short stories in his lifetime A Country Doctor Little Tales 1919 and A Hunger Artist Four Stories 1924 Both collections are included in their entirety in this edition which also contains other uncollected stories and a selection of posthumously published works that have become part of the Kafka canon Enigmatic satirical often bleakly humorous these stories approach human experience at a tangent a singing mouse an ape an inquisitive dog and a paranoid burrowing creature are among the protagonists as well as the professional starvation artist A patient seems to be dying from a metaphysical wound the war horse of Alexander the Great steps aside from history and adopts a quiet profession as a lawyer Fictional meditations on art and artists and a series of aphorisms that come close to expressing Kafka s philosophy of life further explore themes that recur in his major novels Newly translated and with an invaluable introduction and notes Kafka s short stories are haunting and unforgettable