Play Audiobook Sample
Amerika: A New Translation by Mark Harman Based on the Restored Text Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.00) - 7,479 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
A Brilliant new translation of the great writer’s least Kafkaesque novel, based on a German-language text that was produced by a team of international scholars and that is more faithful to Kafka’s original manuscript than anything we have had before. With the same expert balance of precision and nuance that marked his translation of Kafka’s The Castle, the award-winning translator Mark Harman now restores the humor and particularity of language to Amerika. Here is the story of seventeen-year-old Karl Rossman, who, following a scandal involving a housemaid, is banished by his parents to America. With unquenchable optimism and in the company of two comic-sinister companions, he throws himself into misadventure after misadventure, eventually landing in Oklahoma, where a career in the theater beckons. Like much of Kafka’s work, Amerika remained unfinished at the time of his death. Though we can never know how Kafka planned to end the novel, Mark Harman’s superb translation allows us to appreciate as closely as possible, what Kafka did commit to the page.
Download and start listening now!
"Whereas I argue that "The Trial" might be finished, and that "The Castle" isn't anywhere close to being finished, "Amerika" has just about everything but a middle. The opening image of the Statue of Liberty holding a sword is staggering (every time I see the Statue of Liberty I think of this image), and the Senator's dismissal of Karl Rossmann is appropriately unpredictable, as is Karl's aggravating acceptance of said dismissal (you wonder why, here, Kafka's characters don't go and confront their tormentors), and then we meet the demons who we assume will screw with Karl throughout (Delamarche and Robinson), but then we're in Oklahoma and it's the end. Alas..."
— Andy (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“We are not too far wrong to see in Karl Rossmann the explorer who maps the internal territory for the later Kafka hero Joseph K. of The Trial. It is a natural segue, after all, from the youth who lives to placate to the adult with the inescapable sense of guilt. In fact, we could propose Kafka as an artist in a lifelong search of the most accommodating conceit for his vision. Karl is the earliest of his eponymous heroes, all of them essentially one tormented soul whose hallucinatory landscape keeps changing.”
— E. L. Doctorow -
“Eighty-four years after his death of tuberculosis at age forty, Kafka continues to defy such simplifications, to force us to consider him anew. That’s the effect of Mark Harman’s new translation of his first novel, Amerika.”
— Los Angeles Times
Amerika Listener Reviews
-
" great, kafka-esque, but the ending seemed a bit too quick, too uplifting (maybe). That's why 4 stars. "
— Chase, 1/22/2014 -
" gotta read that... "
— Fatemeh, 1/20/2014 -
" This was the easiest book of Kafka's to read. The main character's plight is hopeless as ever, but this is only because the promise of the American dream turns out for the main character to be and empty promise. I'm accustomed to this personally, however and the book flowed rather evenly and expectantly for me. It's a great slice of Kafka, though I would recommend The Trial for a first time Kafka reader. "
— Robyn, 1/20/2014 -
" such sweetness and light! "
— Jordan, 1/12/2014 -
" americans have little class "
— Bill, 1/2/2014 -
" Not the Kafka you are used to. "
— Cody, 12/2/2013 -
" Kafkaesque. "
— Mark, 11/12/2013 -
" Imagine Amerika as a surrealistic dream unfolding in another dimension. "
— Steve, 8/9/2013 -
" Not my favorite Kafka. I'm glad that I read it, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone not really into K. "
— Daniel, 7/20/2013 -
" considering that kafka had never been to america... well, he's got some of the notes down. this book was okay. i wasn't as excited to read it. i think it had too much hype surrounding it. "
— lianne, 6/15/2013 -
" Huge let down. I didn't know it was an incomplete novel. Plus, I have no idea where the story was going. "
— Trippp, 9/29/2012 -
" Now I know why Kafka wanted to have all his literary works burnt posthumously! This book was a clown affair. If you want to read a similar plot, but with originality and cleverness, read Voltaire's "Candide". "
— Angelo, 8/7/2012 -
" Not even close to being my favorite Kafka, but still a funky, if uneven, minor piece. "
— Rob, 2/7/2012 -
" a lot uplifting than many of his other works, although sadly ends suddenly due of course to it not ever properly being published. or at least legitimately. "
— Dylan, 12/23/2011 -
" The weakest of Kafka's novels...and that's saying something, because Kafka was a genius. However, a very very good read. "
— Jessica, 11/17/2011 -
" Kafka is the Master - with the capital M. "
— Sriram, 6/24/2011 -
" Less nightmarish than Kafka's other works - at least at first -, and that's probably why I like it somewhat less. Still a good read though, and the trademark Kafka surrealism and invisible hand of a malevolent destiny do eventually make their appearance. "
— Cristian, 4/30/2011 -
" Me dio miedo. Me angustió. "
— Carla, 4/11/2011 -
" I wish I had been more consistently coherent for this work. However, I still greatly enjoyed this unfinished novel and have grown a greater respect for the great writer of praha. "
— Matthew, 3/26/2011 -
" Kafka is the Master - with the capital M. "
— Sriram, 3/22/2011 -
" Humor at the price of fury. Brilliant. "
— Yoni, 2/16/2011
About Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (1883–1924), one of the major fiction writers of the twentieth century, was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague. His unique body of writing, much of which is incomplete and was mainly published posthumously, is considered by some people to be among the most influential in Western literature, inspiring such writers as Albert Camus, Rex Warner, and Samuel Beckett.
About George Guidall
George Guidall, winner of more than eighty AudioFile Earphones Awards, has won three of the prestigious Audie Award for Excellence in Audiobook Narration. In 2014 the Audio Publishers Association presented him with the Special Achievement Award for lifetime achievement/ During his thirty-year recording career he has recorded over 1,700 audiobooks, won multiple awards, been a mentor to many narrators, and shown by example the potential of fine storytelling. His forty-year acting career includes starring roles on Broadway, an Obie Award for best performance off Broadway, and frequent television appearances.