Franz Kafka

Born in Prague on July 3, 1883, into a German-speaking Jewish family, Franz Kafka grew up in the final decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied law at the German University in Prague and later worked for an insurance institute, writing in the hours left over from his day job. Although only a small part of his work was published during his lifetime, he produced stories and novels that would become central to modern literature.

Kafka is best known for works such as The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. His fiction often places ordinary people inside baffling systems they cannot fully understand, blending everyday detail with dreamlike unease. That distinctive atmosphere became so influential that "Kafkaesque" entered common language.

He died on June 3, 1924, near Vienna, at the age of 40. Much of his reputation was built after his death, when his friend Max Brod preserved and published manuscripts Kafka had wanted destroyed. The result was a body of work that still feels uncannily modern, intimate, and unsettling.