Franz Kafka

Born in Prague on July 3, 1883, he wrote in German and grew up in a Jewish middle-class family in what was then Austria-Hungary. He studied law at the German University in Prague and spent much of his working life in insurance, balancing office work with the writing that would later make him famous.

His best-known works include The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. In these stories, everyday life slips into the strange and the nightmarish, often following isolated characters caught in confusing systems they cannot fully understand.

During his lifetime, only a small part of his writing was published. Much of his reputation was built after his death on June 3, 1924, when his friend Max Brod preserved and published manuscripts that Kafka had asked to be destroyed. That decision helped make him one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.