I was first drawn to this book by its description and eye-catching cover (whoever says that you can't judge a book by its cover doesn't understand its importance as a marketing tool).
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I've read a number of Kafka's short stories many years ago, and the prospect of seeing them given life in a graphic adaptation piqued my interest, especially when Junji Ito, whose adaptations and art style I appreciate, got a personal shout-out. I wouldn't say he's the first illustrator I thought of, reading this book; rather, it has an art style and claustrophobic aesthetic that reminded me of Coraline.
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Now, on to the book: I don't think I can say much about the actual stories and the text, since not only it's adapted and abridged from the original German, but it is also translated two times - once from German to Japanese and then from Japanese to English. The translator notes in the afterword that his difficulty was three-fold, because not only he had to work within the abridged material while trying to decide which version of the story he should stay loyal to and which to consider the original version to translate, but he also had to work with the illustration and panels on the pictorial front. I was impressed by David Yang's efforts to mantain a balance between these realities and adapting them to a Western audience. </br>
One thing that I didn't appreciate was how the text frames, built for Japanese text, which sometimes can be written vertically, inhibited Yang's translations so much that he took the stylistic choice of writing "vertically" as well, turning the text 90° - meaning the reader has to turn the book or the device sideways to be able to read. I'm sure I can't fault this only on him, since the book wasn't written for Western consumption as its first goal, but I can't help but compare it to other manga translations where this problem doesn't seem to exist, or is dealt with in different ways.
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The short story i was most curious to see adapted was, of course, <i>The Metamorphosis</i>, and I was not disappointed: in accordance to Kafka's wishes, the creature is never shown, thus only "seen" through the eyes of Samsa's family and the lodgers, making his presence (and his existence) known only in relation to the objects he interacts with, like the bed and bedsheet, the picture on the wall, and the food in increasing states of decay.</br>
I really liked Nishioka Satoshi's interpretation of the source material: he see's Kafka's stories as tales about hunger and power, with the obvious <i>A Hunger Artist</i> as a pioneer of this view, but it can be seen as well in <i>The Bucket Rider</i> and <i>The Vulture</i>. In <i>THe Metamonphosis</i> food is without a doubt the way Grete uses to exert power over her brother.
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Other short-stories shine for their graphics; the style in the illustration of people remains the same all throughout the collection, but the difference can be seen in the panels for each one, and in their constant change they gives further meaning to the original text.</br>
I particularly appreciated the contrast in the sequencing of certain stories: <i>Jackals and Arabs</i> is characterised by sinuous and surreal images, a reminder of the mirages of the desert, where by the end all the jackals seem to morph into one as the lines between each one is blurred; after that we're hit by the cobblestoned panels of a town in <i>A Fraticide</i>, where the pages themselves seem to fill the page in an architectural quality, the horror vacui of full illustrations giving a claustrophobic ambience to a murder scene. The latter is furter contrasted by the empty spaces of <i>The Vulture</i>, featurless except for the three characters, where everything seems suspended in a dream.</br>
Another graphic device I appreciated is the central box used in <i>A Hunger Artist</i>, always framed by the illustration of the outside world as it physically and metaphorically keeps the artist in his cage.
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The book is a quick read and packs a powerful punch, I would definitely recommend it to fans of Kafka and of surreal and cosmic horror, it's a 3.5 rating for me!

For some reason Kafka's Metamorphosis was assigned reading for English class in freshman, junior AND senior year of high school - I couldn't believe how many times we had to read it! I don't think I've read it since then so I was hoping from the cover art and description that this graphic adaptation would be a novel way of looking at a familiar work.

In some ways, this is true. Kyodai's images are definitely odd and bizarre in a very Kafka-esque manner. I actually think the black and white (something I normally strongly dislike in graphic novels) feels appropriate for these stories. I guess I'm just a little disappointed that there wasn't a stronger adaptation/interpretation. There's so much text within the panels - I'm pretty sure quoted directly from Kafka - that it felt almost like an illustrated version of Kafka's stories, rather than a graphic novel adaptation and retelling (which is what I expected).

I admit that Kafka's stories are... weird... so there were quite a few stories in here where I felt like I missed the point. I'm pretty sure this is likely due to the actual source content, and not the visuals from Kyodai. My favorite story (by far) was the The Bucket Rider.

It was an easy read, but I don't necessarily think this is the best place to start if you aren't already familiar (and perhaps also a fan) of Kafka.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin press for the free eARC!

I feel I should start by saying I've never read anything from Kafka, so my opinion on the stories themselves isn't based on any sort of background knowledge. I assume if you've read Kafka and enjoyed their work you would enjoy this more than I did.

I found the stories in this to be disjointed, I suppose? There didn't feel like a lot of depth to the stories and I had a hard time trying to actually figure out what the meaning behind them was. Again, if you read anything by Kafka already you might understand this more. Maybe it's a translation issue more than anything.

The art style I quite like, although the comparison to Junji Ito (aka the reason I picked this up to read) is way off. My only real comparison would be to the film Mirrormask if anyone has seen that. It's good though, some of the later stories I really enjoyed visually. Some of the formatting made it difficult to read unfortunately, I assume that's because the English text is placed in the boxes that original Japanese text would have been. I found myself having to turn my screen sideways a lot, that could do with some work.

Overall I don't feel like my review is as useful as those from others who have read Kafka, but if you're going into this blind like I did don't expect anything too exciting.

This was a really unique read. Reading Kafka in the form of a manga/comic was a great experience. The quite macabre yet beautiful artwork was the perfect match for Kafka's stories. I highly recommend it!

If you like Kafka or have a literary appreciation for experimental comics, you’ll probably find this compelling. It definitely reads like a translation of a translation, though, and it’s hard to say how “enjoyable” it really is. There are still moments of unsettling brilliance throughout - I loved the composition of the two horses looking through the window in A Country Doctor, and the slow inching spread of blood as the officer is killed by the machine In The Penal Colony. I think The Vulture is a perfect adaptation that uses negative space really beautifully.

Anyone name-pulling Junji Ito as a point of reference probably means well, but I think closer visual touchstones would be 90’s children’s book artists like Jon Scieszka’s (“The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!” and “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales”), Dave McKean’s spot illustrations in Coraline, or a reeeeally stripped down Edward Gorey. If you can remember a picture book that scared you as a kid, that’s how this feels. The brother/sister art team Nishioka Kyodai have a very flat, deconstructed graphic style that is unsettling in its sparseness, and they use ink and cross-hatching in a really interesting way, especially in the age of digital screentones.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a unique way of presenting a number of Kafka's short stories and novellas in a visual medium. The art style is striking, and worked especially well for "A Fratricide" and "The Hunger Artist." I appreciated the approach to "The Metamorphosis" of not showing the protagonist on the page, but implying through shadows etc. and leaving the nature of the transformation to the reader's imagination, as Kafka intended. The translator's note at the end was also enlightening, since translating between German, Japanese, English, and visual formats took a lot of consideration. I will be recommending this to our art, literature, and language students!

Kafka by Nishioka Kyodai is a visually stunning and intellectually stimulating graphic novel that plunges readers into the enigmatic and often perplexing world of Franz Kafka. While it doesn't quite reach the pinnacle of a 5-star rating for me, it is undeniably a unique and thought-provoking experience.

First and foremost, the artwork in this graphic novel is nothing short of mesmerizing. Kyodai's illustrations are intricate, dreamlike, and do a commendable job of capturing the essence of Kafka's surreal and existential tales. The use of shadow and detail creates a haunting atmosphere that adds depth to the narrative.

The choice of adapting Kafka's works into a graphic novel format is ambitious, and it pays off iin many ways. The visual medium is particularly effective in conveying the absurdity and existential themes present in Kafka's writings. It offers a fresh perspective on his stories and is likely to pique the interest of both Kafka aficionados and newcomers alike.

I make it a point to read genres and writing styles I am not normally drawn to. Manga is one of these, as I would generally prefer to just read a full book and make up the scenes in my mind. But, I was intrigued by the description of this book and the visual interpretation of Kafka's surrealist writing. The needed approach to the book was also intriguing to me. Stories originally written in German, translated to English, translated to Japanese Manga, and then translated back to English Manga. Would the intent of the stories be lost somehow? As I don't speak a lick of German or Japanese, I will never know. what I do know is that the stories were bizarre and haunting, and the graphic illustrations just as bizarre and haunting and gory in such a graphically beautiful way. The black and white drawings just enhanced the oppressive atmosphere and, yes, eve nausea of the stories. I'm not sure I am leaving a Manga fan as I would still prefer a full book, but I am leaving with added appreciation for the art of Manga and the skill in condensing hundreds of pages of text into graphics and abridged text to tell the essential story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I loved the art in this graphic novel. Sparse and beautiful. This book contains retellings of 9 Kafka stories, most of which I was not familiar with.

The text is also sparse and seems to keep only the essentials. For many of the stories I looked up interpretations online and it seems that the main tone, themes, and important elements were highlighted in these retellings. The only one where that I felt the retelling was missing something was the final story, which I did not really understand, and after reading a description online and looking at the story again, I think there is something unclear about the way it is retold in this graphic novel.

I would strongly consider using this book if I was teaching Kafka, or if I was teaching visual storytelling (in which case I would have students compare this and the original stories).

It is, perhaps, best to be already a fan of Franz Kafka when picking this up. Faithfully adapting several of his short works - at least, faithful in the textual sense - the book offers an interpretation of Kafka's works that he himself might have shied away from given his resistance to the idea of showing the main character in "The Metamorphosis." The artists stick with that, making sure never to show us Gregor's physical form, and indeed keeping all of the characters visually indistinct from each other with stylized art and fidelity to various analyses of the pieces. This is most interesting in "The Concerns of the Patriarch," where the visual choices distinctly favor religious readings of the text, while "The Bucket Knight" hews close to the literal words rather than any more concrete interpretation. It's an odd book, but a fascinating one, and I could see it being used in an academic setting to good effect.

As a fan of Kafka‘s work, I liked this illustrated edition a lot. It pictures several of his shorter stories and I think the illustration style fits the darker themes quite well. However, because of the text to comic adaptation, it felt a little lacking to me.
It’s a great addition for any Kafka enthusiast but it does not compare to the original works.

Disclaimer: The ARC was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The ARC category in no way impacts the rating of the book. All of my reviews contain my honest opinions.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is an interesting book, I’m not used to manga so it took me a while to get into it and realise how to properly read it. There was a note at the back about how this should be read but I think it should be at the front for those newer to manga so they don’t have to struggle to figure it out themselves. I also thought the artwork was beautiful and especially liked the starry skies in the eyes of some characters when it fit the story.

I went into this while already knowing that I don’t like Kafka but I’m always ready to change my mind but this sadly couldn’t.
If you like Kafka you will probably really enjoy this. Probably even more if you read the original story before. The art style is beautiful and perfectly eerie and the highlight of this book in my opinion.

A quick and entertaining read, of classic Kafka stories fleshed out in macabre-like graphics.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for this DRC of “Kafka: A Graphic Novel Adaptation” in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

This collection (presented for the first time in English) of eerie graphic adaptations of 9 classic Kafka short stories by brother-and-sister duo known as Nishioka Kyodai provide readers with a new and unique vision of Kafka's surreal works.
Features adapted versions of:

The Metamorphosis
A Hunger Artist
In the Penal Colony
A Country Doctor
The Concerns of a Patriarch
The Bucket Rider
Jackals and Arabs
A Fratricide
The Vulture

I have never encountered Kafka before and this manga style, very reminiscent of Junji Ito, is not my normal go to for manga but in the context of this work, is perfect for the oddities that are the short stories being presented.

Overall I found the collection to be well put together if not a little confusing, (mainly because I'm not at all familiar with Kafka's work) and wasn't sure what to expect. However, as a complete novice, by the time I got to the end I felt that it was also a great gateway introduction to his work. My favourite two stories were The Metamorphosis and Fratricide and I think these two are the most accessible to readers who potentially aren't au fait with either Kafka or this style of manga.

I feel that the artistic style definitely enhanced the surrealist nature of the stories and at times verged on horror (The Vulture and A Hunger Artist) and melancholic fairy tale (The Bucket Knight). It's certainly memorable, Daliesque even, in how it goes to the deepest recesses of the human mind and twists the ordinary into something grotesque and unsettling in many areas. The translation suited the illustrations perfectly and the stories flowed well keeping the eye interested with the different ways images and words are presented throughout.

Definitely a niche piece of work and may not have wide appeal but if you're looking for something different to read, maybe a little outside your comfort zone and a little challenging then this is definitely one to pick up.

I have mixed feelings about this anthology. I appreciate the art style generally, and I love the idea of breathing new life into older texts. Kafka has a building sense of visceral unease that I normally like. I enjoyed the less-patterned artwork (The Metamorphosis) as opposed to the more-patterned, Escher-esque artwork (The Concerns of a Patriarch). My favorite adaptation by far was The Vulture - I feel the artwork accompanied the story well, and the text was accessible. Unfortunately, much of the artwork distracts from the prose instead of accompanying it.

Most of my qualms with Kafka are format-based. The way the text boxes are arranged makes the reading experience quite difficult. The pages also occasionally alternate orientation (ex. 6, 14, 158, 159), including the first page (6), which creates initial confusion. Perhaps this is more legible in a printed format. The ordering of text blocks, right-to-left in the Japanese style, will only sometimes be intuitive to English readers, especially on split-page scenes (ex. 164-165). From how split-pages are ordered, I imagine the entire book would be read right-to-left or printed "backwards" to the English imagination. While intuitive in print format, it might be good to make a note for the e-book to avoid confusion in reading.

If this graphic novel is something that's interesting, from the illustrations to the way these short stories are presented. I loved the art style and I find it mermeraizing. The fact that I've always loved Kafka's work does its magic too. My favourite was The Metamorphosis and The Bucket Knight.

I think one could hardly have more adequate drawings than these to describe Kafka's stories.

Credo che difficilmente si potrebbero avere dei disegni piú adeguati di questi per descrivere le storie di Kafka.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

It was interesting but it didn’t really hook me, I found it a little difficult to read.
Rating 2 Stars

Incredibly unique way of absorbing Kafka’s strange tales. The manga does a great job in incorporating that bizarre and intense feel of kafka’s stories keeping true to his style of story telling. The artwork complement the dark tales and make for an interesting reading experience.