The Man Who Disappeared (America): Amerika; The Missing Person; Lost in America

The first of Kafka’s three great novels, The Man Who Disappeared (America) follows the picaresque adventures of Karl Rossman, who is banished to America following a family scandal. Upon his arrival, Karl immediately happens upon his uncle, and from there follows a pattern of wandering, adoption and expulsion as Karl marches inexorably on towards the interior of the continent. With its blitheness and comical moments, The Man Who Disappeared is perhaps the most charming of Kafka’s works. It fits perfectly into Kafka’s trinity of novels as alienation and unjust persecution pervade the work, and Karl appears to plunge towards a catastrophe as grim as those in The Trial or The Castle.