About The Lovers of Franz K:
This inventive literary obituary forKafka doubles as a thriller of love and revenge during the Cold War, set in Paris, Istanbul, West Berlin, and Tel Aviv.
During his lifetime, the author Franz Kafka instructed his best friend, Max Brod, to burn all his writings upon his death. But Brod refused to do so and instead published Kafka’s works—which are now regarded as masterpieces of twentieth-century European literature. The story begins during the 1960s, when amid the student protests in Europe, student Ferdy Kaplan attempts to assassinate Brod for this act. After Brod is only injured, the assailant is captured and questioned by Commissioner Müller of the West Berlin police. So begins the tale.
In this gripping tribute to Kafka, Sönmez vividly recreates a key period of history when the Berlin Wall divided Europe and women were fighting for freedom and against tradition.. More than a typical thriller, Lovers of Franz K. is a brilliant exploration of the value of books and the issues of anti-Semitism, immigration, and violence that recur in Kafka’s life and writings.
Author: Burhan Sönmez
Burhan Sönmez is an award-winning Kurdish novelist from Bakur.. He published five novels originally in Turkish; his sixth novel, Lovers of Franz K, is the first one that he wrote originally in Kurdish. All his work has been translated into dozens of languages. In 2017 he received the Disturbing the Peace Award bestowed by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation. He lives in Cambridge, UK, where he lectures at Cambridge University. He currently serves as the president of PEN International.