Franz Kafka: The Trial, Metamorphosis, Amerika & more: A BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama collection

Kafka's finest works adapted for BBC radio - plus a biographical play, three discussion pieces and the award-winning Kafka The Musical

A lawyer by day, Franz Kafka spent his nights writing visionary stories and novels exploring bureaucracy, power and alienation - iconic fiction that gave the world the adjective `Kafkaesque'.

This BBC anthology showcases his most famous works. Metamorphosis tells the tale of Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. Starring Tom Basden, this Radio 4 production gives Kafka's classic a modern twist with a darkly comic edge. In The Trial, a protagonist known only as `K' is plunged into a nightmare world when he is accused of an unknown crime. Iwan Rheon leads an all-star cast including Phil Davis and Mark Heap.

Set in 1911, Kafka's debut novel The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika) features a young man from Prague, sent away to the New World after an indiscretion with a girl. Read by Carl Prekopp, Tiny Tales offers an exquisite study in restlessness, while Dermot Crowley narrates the short story `A Country Doctor'.

Also included is Franz and Felice, a biographical play, and the Kafkaesque drama Kafka: The Musical, in which the author finds he has been cast to play himself in a show about his own life. David Tennant stars in this award-winning Radio 3 production. Three fascinating documentary programmes round off our collection, with discussions pieces on the man and the work.

First published 1915 (Metamorphosis), 1916 (`A Country Doctor'), 1925 (The Trial), 1927 (Amerika)

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