{"product_id":"lovers-of-franz-k-isbn-9781635425376","title":"Lovers of Franz K.","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn inventive literary obituary for Kafka, this thriller of love and revenge brings the Cold War to life, from Paris and Istanbul to West Berlin and Tel Aviv.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmid the student protests in 1960s Europe, Kafka’s best friend, Max Brod, becomes a target of their ire: Against the dying writer’s wishes, he had published texts that never should have been part of his legacy. After Brod is injured in an attempted assassination, assailant Ferdy Kaplan is captured and questioned by Commissioner Müller of the West Berlin police.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs his interrogation progresses, through dialogues in the police station, the courtroom, and the prison, Kaplan’s background is revealed piece by piece, from the love story between him and his childhood friend Amalya, to their shared passion for Kafka, which leads them to join a radical group. But when a shocking discovery is made about the person who ultimately set Brod’s attempted murder in motion, Kaplan and Müller agree to work together to expose the truth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this gripping, thought-provoking tribute to Kafka, Burhan Sönmez vividly recreates a key period of history when the Berlin Wall divided Europe, and women were fighting for freedom and against tradition, adopting Jean Seberg’s iconic short haircut from \u003ci\u003eBreathless\u003c\/i\u003e. More than a typical mystery, \u003ci\u003eLovers of Franz K. \u003c\/i\u003eis a brilliant exploration of the value of books, and the issues of anti-Semitism, immigration, and violence that recur in Kafka’s life and writings.“There’s a Kafkaesque quality to the interrogation…but Kurdish author Sönmez is really interested in the question of who owns literature…The dialogue-led approach makes the book punchy and fast-moving, and brings some surprising twists before the end.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, The Best Recent Translated Fiction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What begins as a noirish police procedural, complete with sardonic dialogue and cigarette smoke curling beneath fluorescent lights, soon shifts into a story driven by ethical conundrum as much as by the apparatus of suspense…Still, the novella’s intellectual ambition never eclipses its narrative allure. Mr. Sönmez’s prose, gracefully spare in Mr. Hêzil’s translation, evocatively channels Kafka himself.” —\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sönmez…wrestles with fraught questions of loyalty and legacy in this contemplative literary thriller…Sönmez’s sharp thematic layering and concise worldbuilding impress. This is a good bet for mystery readers seeking something off the beaten path.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eLovers of Franz K.\u003c\/i\u003e is a gripping tale of idealism colliding with history and moral uncertainty. It portrays characters scarred by their past as they grapple with unanswerable questions and make startling decisions. Exploring passion, loyalty, and history, Sönmez’s novel will leave you questioning what it truly means to write, to love, and to honor the literary creator versus the creation.” —Ava Homa, author of \u003ci\u003eDaughters of Smoke and Fire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Did Max Brod commit a crime by not fulfilling Kafka’s last will—to burn all his works? Burhan Sönmez is not a judge. He is only a scribe at the Last Judgment, recording the speeches of the parties. And he does his job brilliantly.” —Mikhail Shishkin, author of \u003ci\u003eMaidenhair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A gripping tale of youthful single-mindedness and institutionalization…a glass-bottomed boat swirling through the Bosphorus of Kafka’s consciousness and works, glaring into the depths of him, his mercurial shadows and shifting states.” —Lemn Sissay, author of \u003ci\u003eMy Name Is Why\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eBurhan Sönmez \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of six novels, which have been published in more than thirty languages. He was born in Turkey and grew up speaking Turkish and Kurdish. He worked as a lawyer in Istanbul before going into political exile in Britain. Sönmez’s writing has appeared in such publications as \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDer Spiegel\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDie Zeit\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eLa Repubblica\u003c\/i\u003e. His previous novels include \u003ci\u003eLabyrinth\u003c\/i\u003e (Other Press, 2019) and \u003ci\u003eStone and Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e (Other Press, 2023). He was elected president of PEN International in 2021.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSamî Hêzil\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer and translator from northern Kurdistan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature, and has been translating literary and scientific works from English into Kurdish since 2000. His short stories and scholarly articles in Kurdish have been published by a variety of literary publications. He teaches Kurdish literature at Kurdî-Der (The Kurdish Language Association) in Van, Turkey.\u003cb\u003e1 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWEST BERLIN POLICE STATION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBerlin is a city divided by a wall down the middle. People living there in the summer of 1968 are staring at the long wall and are complaining of the weather getting warmer and the buses running late. The interrogation room in the basement of the police station on Friesenstraße is cool. Stone walls spread damp in the room.\u003cbr\u003eCommissioner Müller sits across from the suspect, Ferdy Kaplan, lighting a cigarette and blowing out the smoke. He mutters to himself as he examines the papers spread out on the desk.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“Yes, the name used in the passport—”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“Used? That is my real name, Ferdy Kaplan. But it does not matter.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“What does not matter?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“My name . . .”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“Why not?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“The explanation is in the papers in front of you. There you can find the answers to your questions.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“If only it were so, Mr. Kaplan. We will get answers to some questions from you. Won’t we, boys?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e(The other three police officers in the room laugh.)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“You want to know where I got the gun, and from whom, don’t you?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“We will get there. According to the file here, you are staying in the Steglitz neighborhood. Your mother is German, your father is Turkish. You seem to live in Istanbul, and you frequently visit Paris. First, tell me when you arrived in Berlin.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“I was born here. I am from here. Do not speak to me as if I were a foreigner.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“You are from here, but mostly you live elsewhere.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“That is not a crime. If you had lived in other places, perhaps you would have found yourself better professions.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e(Ferdy Kaplan looks toward the police officer taking notes at the next table.)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“We have no complaints about our profession. We are in a better situation than you. Think about yourself, not us.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“I’m happy with the chair I am in.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“How can you be so sure of yourself?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“I can tell you if you would like to hear.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“Oh, can you?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“Yes, let me explain.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“Well then . . .”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“Where would you like me to start?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“Why don’t you start with your origin? \u003ci\u003eKaplan \u003c\/i\u003eis a Jewish name . . .”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003eNo, it is a popular surname in Turkey. It means \u003ci\u003etiger \u003c\/i\u003ein Turkish.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003eTell me about your mother and father . . . People like you are rare.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“What do you mean?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“Suspects are mostly tight-lipped; they are not inclined to speak openly.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“People with no beliefs behave that way; they are afraid of talking.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“Is there a belief in committing a crime?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“I don’t think that I committed a crime, I only did what I believed in. I did what had to be done.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCOMMISSIONER MÜLLER: \u003c\/b\u003e“You did ‘what had to be done,’ is that so? Honestly, I am curious now how you are going to explain all of this.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFERDY KAPLAN: \u003c\/b\u003e“Everything I will mention is available in your records, you don’t need to take notes. \u003ci\u003e(Ferdy Kaplan glances at the police officer at the next table taking notes.) \u003c\/i\u003eMy mother was a Nazi supporter. My Turkish father shared the same ideas. They died here during a Soviet bombardment in the last days of the war. My grandfather rescued me out of the ruins. When he fell ill with his kidneys, he must have realized a year later that he wouldn’t live long and sent me off to my father’s family in Istanbul.”","brand":"Other Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304776454373,"sku":"NP9781635425376","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781635425376.jpg?v=1767731924","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/lovers-of-franz-k-isbn-9781635425376","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}