In 1924, hoping to cure his illness, Franz Kafka traveled to a sanatorium in Kierling, Austria, run by a Dr. Hugo Hoffman. He would spend his last days there. In Robert Cohen’s story, we see the end of Kafka’s life through Dr. Hoffman’s eyes. The doctor attempts to decipher the dying man’s enigmatic communications, scribbled on scraps of paper, while being harried by Kafka’s friend, Klopstock, and a young woman who has fallen in love with the then-unknown writer. As the case progresses, the once practical and upstanding doctor gets pulled deeper and deeper into his strange patient's world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Cohen is the author of several novels, including most recently Amateur Barbarians and Inspired Sleep, and a collection of stories, The Varieties of Romantic Experience. He teaches at Middlebury College.
PRAISE FOR ROBERT COHEN
“Formidable. . . . Cohen balances . . . robust black comedy with moments of quietly profound feeling.” –The Atlantic Monthly
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