The Sunny Side of Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born into a Jewish family in Prague. In 1906 he received a doctorate in jurisprudence, and for many years he worked a tedious job as a civil service lawyer investigating claims at the State Worker's Accident Insurance Institute. He never married, and published only a few slim volumes of stories during his lifetime. Meditation, a collection of sketches, appeared in 1912; The Stoker: A Fragment in 1913; Metamorphosis in 1915; The Judgement in 1916; In the Penal Colony in 1919; and A Country Doctor in 1920. The great novels were not published until after his death from tuberculosis: America, The Trial and The Castle.

As a teenager, Maria Moreira fell in love with Franz Kafka through his letters and diaries, discovering the uplifting, humorous, and romantic Franz before meeting the slightly complex, somewhat clouded author Kafka. After that discovery, Kafka has remained a cherished companion. Since 2022, she has shared this brighter side of Kafka through The Sunny Side of Franz Kafka, an X account followed by more than 150, 000 readers. A theology graduate and long-time professional in dementia care, Maria lives near the sea on Sweden's West Coast with her family and her cat, Banderas. Her mornings begin, unfailingly, with coffee. . . and Kafka.