Tales, fables and aphorisms

A collection of 11 of Franz Kafka's best short stories, selected and translated by the great editor Ênio Silveira.

Tales, Fables, and Aphorisms brings together the best of Franz Kafka, one of the greatest writers of all time. Selected and translated directly from German by editor Ênio Silveira—who also wrote the introductory note—the texts reveal the Kafkaesque tone of realism that plunges us into existential absurdity. This edition is also a tribute to Ênio, who would have celebrated his 70th anniversary as editor of Civilização Brasileira in 2021.

In this book, we see Kafka as a keen observer of the varied nuances of human behavior. At times pathetic, at times ironic, but with warm understanding, he expiates, through psychological self-limitations, the weaknesses and defects inherent in humanity.

Collected here are the tales and fables "Prometheus," "Gracchus the Hunter," "A Little Fable," "Concerning Parables," "A Village Doctor," "Jackals and Arabs," "Worries of a Family Man," "The New Lawyer," and "An Address to an Academy," as well as the aphorisms "'He'—Notes from the Year 1920" and "Reflections on Sin, Pain, Hope, and the Right Path." The book is also illustrated with drawings by the author.

In Tales, fables and aphorisms , readers will come into contact with texts that deserve multiple readings, because each time, like a kind of exorcism, they free us from insidious inner ghosts and improve us as individuals.