Translations are fascinating, and they can change everything. When you've worked long enough in a field that runs on translation, you become painfully aware of that. This is nothing new in the world of literature. Any translator who touches a project, either through action or inaction, makes a statement about the work they're doing. The first translation of Franz Kafka's diaries, as we learn from Ross Benjamin's foreword, took liberties. Removing less "acceptable" thoughts, tweaking unfinished work to tuck in the frayed edges... all things deeply misrepresentative of an author in the midst of his own thoughts.

This new translation is a ramble—a series of rambles. There's joy in the disjointed, meaning in the meaninglessness. Ideally, a reader sees a writer at their best, with their tags tucked in and their hair brushed and the lipstick stains off their teeth. But The Diaries of Franz Kafka is glorious in its honesty.

At times, he rambles to himself about his inability to love or be loved. Some days are people-watching: snippets of description, like an artist capturing a pose. Some entries are the same passage, over and over, refining the prose. Occasionally there are careful account of Kafka's day. The plays he takes in, the reading he himself is doing, vacations he's taken.

Sometimes—most meaningful of all—are short, agonized sentences admitting to once again having written nothing.

Benjamin has done a beautiful, difficult service: knowing when is the time to straighten an author's tie, and when to let him appear as he is, real and disheveled, to the world. There's something beautiful and personal in seeing this reality. For the authors among this book's readership, it's relatable and a relief. Writers are writers, no matter the level of fame, no matter the time period.

For a scholar of Kafka's works, it is likely a must-read. But for any author at all, of any level, it is hugely important. In these pages, Kafka ceases to be an untouchable luminary and becomes what we all are: a person doing their best in the world, navigating turbulent feelings day to day, and wondering what mark they'll eventually leave.