This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka s works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; Meditation, a collection of his earlier studies; The Judgement, written in a single night of frenzied creativity; The Stoker, the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional piece, The Aeroplanes at Brescia, Kafka s eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of Kafka s literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought.