The Reading Warehouse

The Trial is one of the great works of the twentieth century--an extraordinary vision of a man put on trial by an anonymous authority on an unspecified charge.

Josef K., thirty, lives in a large town in an unspecified country when he is summoned to answer a charge and appear in the courtroom for his trial. Franz Kafka evokes all the realities of trial without any of the specifics in a society that seems to have degraded into chaos: a squalid environment, rats, and yellow liquid shooting out of a hole in the wall. Guards, claustrophobia, anxiety--The Trial is a gripping story and an allegory of modern life that remains just as relevant a century after it was written.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924), one of the major fiction writers of the twentieth century, was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague. His unique body of writing, much of which is incomplete and was mainly published posthumously, is considered by some people to be among the most influential in Western literature, inspiring such writers as Albert Camus, Rex Warner, and Samuel Beckett.

Rupert Degas, winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, has recorded the works of Peter Carey, Haruki Murakami, Andy McNab, Darren Shan, and Derek Landy, among others. He has also recorded over fifty radio productions including The Gemini Apes, The Glittering Prizes, This Sceptered Isle, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He has appeared on film and television in Dead Romantic, EastEnders, Waiting for God, Passport to Murder, Over Here, Fatherland, The Cappuccino Years, Exorcist: The Beginning, Love Soup and Shoot the Messenger. He has also lent his voice to numerous animated films and series including Mr. Bean, Bob the Builder, Robotboy, and The Amazing World of Gumball. Along with several stints in Newsrevue at the Canal Café Theatre and in Edinburgh, he has appeared on the London stage in The Boys Next Door, Are We There Yet?, Becket, Stones in His Pockets, and Patrick Barlow's adaptation of The 39 Steps. He lives in Sydney, Australia.