An original and beautiful collection of ten stories written by Franz Kafka and compiled in this volume by his great biographer Reiner Stach
The protagonists of these fantastic tales come from the animal world. They are creatures with an identity that is not always unequivocal, who act in a mysterious way, often reflecting intensely, even speaking like human beings, without being so. The genius, the ferocious humor and the most exacerbated imagination that characterizes much of Kafka's work are manifested in their maximum and most beautiful expression. In four of the stories collected no human being appears, and in three of them, the animal - the protagonist - is the narrator himself.

Through their voices we glimpse what it is like to be a mole, a monkey, a jackal, a horse, a vulture, a mouse, a dog... creatures that disturbingly jump the barrier that separates the human being from the animal. A revolutionary idea at the time, and even humiliating for some, since at the beginning of the 20th century the inferior status of animals seemed to have been established and determined forever.

In these stories, Kafka maintains a virtuoso treatment of the metaphors and symbolism of these apparently irrational beings. The plasticity and almost unlimited mutability of such resources are exploited by the author in an unprecedented way, making his animal creations gain a credibility that is sometimes terrifying.