In the Penal Colony

Sep 13, 2025 3:05 AM

Author:Franz Kafka,Michael Hofmann

In the Penal Colony

'The condemned man looked so doggishly submissive, it really seemed as if one might allow him to roam the slopes freely, and only needed to whistle when it was time for the execution, and he would come.'

Kafka transformed the possibilities of the short story, his unique imagination giving his dark tales a sense of dream-like logic and unreality, in which their horrors are humorous and unease pervades. In these two stories, a traveller is shown the workings of an elaborate machine with a bloody purpose, and a son awakens unimagined resentments in his father.

This book includes In the Penal Colony and The Judgement.

Reviews

Chick lit must be taken on its own terms and this is a snappy contribution to the genre, delivering a nice version of the traditional message. It's taken them forever but in chick lit, finally, sisters are doing it for themselves.

—— Observer

Cassie Cavanagh strays into Sophie Kinsella's shopoholic territory and meeting with a chicklit legend is more dangerous than the Harvey Nicks shoe shop on the first day of the sales. Thankfully, she pulls it off with wit and charm

—— Daily Record

Far and away my favourite writer

—— Wendy Holden

One of our best historical novelists

—— News Chronicle

Harwood is enviable skilled, handling pacing, delivery and plot with assurance and sly humour... The Ghost Writer has powerful moments and...a delicacy and tenderness that make it wonderfully readable

—— Times Literary Supplement

'One of the country's most widely read novelists

—— Sunday Times

Jean Plaidy has already established herself among the foremost of current historical novelists

—— Birmingham Mail

Jean Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the past with such rich complexity

—— Guardian

'A grand recounting of the second Punic War...Durham's epic is truly a big, magnificent, sprawling story complete with a sizable cast of compelling characters, intricately drawn battle scenes and fluid, graceful prose'

—— Booklist (starred review)

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