The Paris AtlasCharting the artists, works, and places worth returning to.
Illustrated portrait of Josef K.

A character in The Trial

Josef K.

Josef K.

The book

Cover of The Trial by Franz Kafka
The TrialFranz Kafka, 1925

A man is arrested without a charge and trapped inside rules controlled by authorities who refuse to explain them.

View the book

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Josef K. is a thirty-year-old senior bank employee and the novel’s central character. He begins confident that status, intelligence, and persistence will defeat an absurd accusation. He wants both to dismiss the case and to master it, and that contradiction keeps drawing him back to the court. His arrogance appears in his treatment of subordinates and women, while his fear grows as the case invades his work and private life. Two executioners kill him in a quarry on the eve of his thirty-first birthday.

If you like The Trial

Four books that share themes, tone, or setting with this one.

If you like Franz Kafka

Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.

  • Illustrated portrait of Louis-Ferdinand Céline

    Louis-Ferdinand Céline

    The doctor of the Paris slums who wrote the century's blackest, funniest novel — and changed the sound of French prose.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Henry Miller

    Henry Miller

    The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Paul Bowles

    Paul Bowles

    American novelist and composer whose expatriate fiction explores dislocation, unstable intimacy, fatalism, and North Africa.

    View author