Winner of the 2020 Sami Rohr Prize

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Kafka’s Last Trial, named a 2019 "Book of the Year" by The Economist, begins with Kafka’s last instruction to his closest friend, Max Brod: to destroy all his remaining papers upon his death. But when the moment arrived in 1924, Brod could not bring himself to burn the unpublished works of the man he considered a literary genius―even a saint. Instead, Brod devoted his life to championing Kafka’s writing, rescuing his legacy from obscurity and physical destruction.The story of Kafka’s posthumous life is itself Kafkaesque. By the time of Brod’s own death in Tel Aviv in 1968, Kafka’s major works had been published, transforming the once little-known writer into a pillar of literary modernism. Yet Brod left a wealth of still-unpublished papers to his secretary, who sold some, held on to the rest, and then passed the bulk of them on to her daughters, who in turn refused to release them. An international legal battle erupted at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem to determine which country could claim ownership of Kafka’s work: Israel, where Kafka dreamed of living but never entered, or Germany, where Kafka’s three sisters perished in the Holocaust?Balint offers a gripping account of the controversial trial in Israeli courts―brimming with dilemmas legal, ethical, and political―that determined the fate of Kafka’s manuscripts. Deeply informed, with sharply drawn portraits and a remarkable ability to evoke a time and place, Kafka’s Last Trial is at once a brilliant biographical portrait of a literary genius, and the story of two countries whose obsessions with overcoming the traumas of the past came to a head in a hotly contested trial for the right to claim the literary legacy of one of the Jewish people's modern masters.

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Rights Sold:

Brazil: Arquipelago; China: Guangxi Normal University Press; Croatia: Tim Press; France: Decouverte; Germany: Berenberg Verlag (harback); Germany: Fischer (paperback) ; Holland: Nieuw Amsterdam; Hungary: Europa; Israel: Magnes; Korea: Moonji Publishing; Poland: Agora; Russia: Exmo; Spain: Ariel; US: Norton; UK: Picador, Macmillan

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Reviews:

"A highly entertaining story of literary friendship, epic legal battles, and cultural politics centered on one of the most enigmatic writers of the 20th century.... an exquisitely human drama peopled with an eccentric cast of characters that beautifully evokes the early days of Israel, the sadness of the exiles, and the long shadow cast by the Holocaust." —Guy Chazan, Financial Times

"Fascinating and forensically scrupulous." —John Banville, Guardian

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"Dramatic and illuminating....raises momentous questions about nationality, religion, literature, and even the Holocaust." —Adam Kirsch, The Atlantic"Thoughtful and provocative." —Ruth Franklin, Wall Street Journal"A gifted cultural historian with a scholarly sensibility." —Lev Mendes, New York Times Book Review"Absorbing....Balint elegantly intercuts courtroom scenes with episodes from Kafka’s biography and cultural afterlife. He brings out every paradox of a judicial process that tried to tie down this most ambivalent of authors, the ultimate 'disaffiliated pariah,' to a fixed identity....Balint’s scrupulous and sardonic prose makes you love Kafka, and dread the law." —The Economist"A tale pitting two Goliaths against one octogenarian David, untangled in exacting, riveting detail....A must-read." —Rebecca Schuman, Slate

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"Though Benjamin Balint’s masterful hunt for Kafka’s rightful ownership begins as a local dispute in an Israeli family court, it soon thickens into modernity’s most bitterly contentious cultural conundrum. Who should inherit Franz Kafka? The woman into whose hands his manuscripts fortuitously fell? Germany, the nation that murdered his sisters but claims his spirit? Israel, asserting a sovereign yet intimate ancestral right? Searing questions of language, of personal bequest, of friendship, of biographical evidence, of national pride, of justice, of deceit and betrayal, even of metaphysical allegiance, burn through Balint’s scrupulous trackings of Kafka’s final standing before the law." —Cynthia Ozick, author of FOREIGN BODIES"Thrilling and profound, Kafka’s Last Trial shines new light not only on the greatest writer of the twentieth century and the fate of his work, but also on the larger question of who owns art or has a right to claim guardianship of it. Benjamin Balint combines the sharp eye of the courtroom journalist with the keen meditations of a literary and cultural thinker, and his research and lively intelligence deliver insights on every page." —Nicole Krauss, author of FOREST DARK"Kafka’s Last Trial is a fascinating inquiry into―and meditation on―the nature of artistic genius and the proprietary claims any one individual or country has on the legacy of that genius. Benjamin Balint is both a superb investigative journalist and a gifted cultural critic. This is that rarest of books: a scholarly work that is also compulsively readable." —Daphne Merkin, author of THIS CLOSE TO HAPPY"Superb....Beautifully crafted, with just the right ratios of empirical-legal information, intellectual history, critical awareness of Kafka and his work, and wise reflection. It is obviously the product of admirably patient research and rare dedication to quality control." —Stanley A. Corngold, Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature, Princeton University

"Balint’s account of this saga is both a fine journalistic telling of that half century of courtroom drama, and a revealing examination of the writer and the relationships at its heart.... Balint brings all of these forces and arguments to vivid life." —Tim Adams, Observer

"Fascinatingly examines how much was at stake for Germany and Israel in claiming Kafka as their man . . . Balint has minutely researched every twist and turn of this politico-legal saga, and tells it with even-handed seriousness." —Sunday Times 

"I warmly recommend this deeply absorbing book." —Rupert Christiansen, Telegraph 

"A legal and philosophical black comedy of the first order, complete, like all the best adventure stories, with a physical treasure to be won or lost.... A deep yet entertaining look at something we should all care very much about: the absurdity of our modern obsession with ‘authenticity’ and ‘ownership’.... Balint skilfully lays out the madness going on here. He does full justice to the matchless tragedy of Germany Judaism while turning a cool, at times almost disbelieving gaze on the absurdity of the modern battle." —Spectator

"Gripping and knotty" —New Statesman

"Thought-provoking and assiduously researched" —Kevin Jackson, Literary Review