Franz

The book Franz is based on the screenplay for the film of the same name by director Agnieszka Holland. The source material and the book adaptation were written by the successful author and screenwriter Marek Epstein. He has written a compelling story inspired by the life, work, and imagination of the writer Franz Kafka, who managed to be ahead of his time in a fascinating way. The author creates a kaleidoscope of events from fragments, dreams, letters, and surviving stories. The result is a sensorially intense portrait of a man who never stopped searching for himself – and in doing so, touched upon something essential in all of us.

The book begins with Kafka's childhood in Prague and follows his life until his death in Austria after the First World War. It covers his relationship with his authoritarian father, his strong friendship with Max Brod, and his complicated love affairs with Felice Bauer and Milena Jesenská. The result is a rich, emotional, often ironic, and at times even grotesque fresco of a man who, in his desire for an “ordinary” life, managed to write the most extraordinary works.
The book is full of imagination, humour, and pain, and in fragments, it shows us the inner world of an exceptional man, who is also defined by the following terms: vegetarian, workaholic, introvert, outsider, epistolary lover, and a clerk in a nightmare.