The Castle

A land-surveyor known only as K. arrives at a small village permanently covered in snow and dominated by a castle to which access seems permanently denied. K.'s attempts to discover why he has been called constantly run up against the peasant villagers, who are in thrall to the absurd bureaucracy that keeps the castle shut and the rigid hierarchy of power among the self-serving bureaucrats. But in this strange wilderness, there is passion, tenderness, and considerable humor. Darkly bizarre, this complex book was the last novel by one of the twentieth century's greatest and most influential writers.