Letters to Kafka

Letters to Kafka is a sweeping, tragic romance and feminist adventure about translator and resistance fighter Milena Jesenská's torrid love affair with Franz Kafka.

In 1919, Milena Jesenská, a clever and spirited twenty-three-year-old, finds herself trapped in an unhappy marriage to literary critic Ernst Pollak. As Pollak is unable to support them in Vienna's post-war economy, Jesenská must supplement their income by working as a translator. Having previously met her compatriot Franz Kafka in the literary salons of Prague, she writes to him to request permission to translate his story 'The Stoker' from German to Czech, becoming Kafka's first translator. This letter sparks an intense and increasingly passionate correspondence. Jesenská is captivated by Kafka's energy, intensity, and burning ambition to write, while Kafka is fascinated by Jesenská's wit, rebellious spirit, and intelligence.

Jesenská and Kafka meet twice for lovers' trysts, but can such an intense connection endure beyond a fleeting affair? In her remarkable debut novel, Christine Estima weaves little-known facts and fiction into a rich tapestry, powerfully portraying the struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of wife, lover, and intellectual.