The Burrow

A superb new translation by Michael Hofmann of some of Kafka''s most frightening and visionary short fiction

Strange beasts, night terrors, absurd bureaucrats and sinister places abound in this collection of stories by Franz Kafka. Some are less than a page long, others more substantial; all were unpublished in his lifetime. These matchless short works range from the gleeful miniature horror ''Little Fable'' to the off-kilter humour of ''Investigations of a Dog'', and from the elaborate waking nightmare of ''Building the Great Wall of China'' to the creeping unease of ''The Burrow'', where a nameless creature''s labyrinthine hiding place turns into a trap of fear and paranoia.