The Castle: The Definitive Edition by Franz Kafka (with an Homage by Thomas Mann) Second Printing 1974 published by Schocken Books, N.Y.

Kafka actually died before completing this novel, his friend Max Brod edited it for publication. It is questionable whether Kafka intended on finishing it if he had survived his tuberculosis, Kafka is aledged to have told Brod an ending for the story & at another time he told Brod that he wasn't going to finish it. As it stands the novel ends in mid-sentence, Kafka had instructed Brod to destroy all his works upon his death including this unfinished work. Brod of course did not and "The Castle" was published two years after Kafka's death. Dark and at times surreal, The Castle is about alienation, bureaucracy, the seemingly endless frustrations of man's attempts to stand against the system, and the futile and hopeless pursuit of an unobtainable goal. Classic Kafka in all its' symbolism, puzzling, dream-like darkness, very surreal and most of all a fascinating, original story that one comes to expect from tragic young writer.