Kafka's first and funniest novel, Amerika tells the story of
the young immigrant Karl Rossmann who, after an embarrassing sexual
misadventure, finds himself "packed off to America" by his parents.
Expected to redeem himself in this magical land of opportunity,
young Karl is swept up instead in a whirlwind of dizzying
reversals, strange escapades, and picaresque adventures.
Although Kafka never visited America, images of its vast
landscape, dangers, and opportunities inspired this saga of the
"golden land." Here is a startlingly modern, fantastic and
visionary tale of America "as a place no one has yet seen, in a
historical period that can't be identified," writes E. L. Doctorow
in his new foreword. "Kafka made his first novel from his own
mind's mythic elements," Doctorow explains, "and the research data
that caught his eye were bent like light rays in a field of
gravity."