Well, those ten pages went pretty hard. We hope you enjoyed a break from the heavy tomes this month as we gathered round to read something much smaller and scarier. And I hope that The Yellow Wallpaper's yellow wallpaper continues to haunt your idle moments. This month, DRAB will be turning to my favorite short-story writer, though not to take up his short stories: We're doing Franz Kafka's The Castle. This is the novel he was working at the time of his death in 1924, and which was left unfinished, mid-sentence, only for his friend and literary executor Max Brod to cobble it together for posthumous publication. It is occupied with themes of (if you can believe it) alienation and bureaucracy, so here's to another month of feel-good reading ahead.
Pretty much all the Kafka I've read has been translated by Willa and Edwin Muir, but this time I'll be trying the Mark Harman translation and welcoming any excuse to grab one of Peter Mendelsund's beautiful eyeball covers at my local bookstore. You might also hit your favorite library, or Bookshop.org. Whichever method you choose, please join us on Thursday, July 1 to chat Franz in the comments. We’ll send some reading reminders in The Cipher, our daily newsletter for all Pal-and-up subscribers. DRAB-related feedback or suggestions can go at giri@defector.com. Now go find out what the deal is with that castle.
