I have written a guest post on one of my favourite short stories, Franz Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’, for The Gum Wall. Here’s an extract:

It’s difficult to choose just one of his affecting, off-kilter short stories to talk about. Among my favourites are ‘The Judgment’, ‘The Metamorphosis’ (its brilliance is not exaggerated), ‘A Country Doctor’ (influential for my writing), ‘A Report to an Academy’ (and in fact, all his animal stories) and ‘A Hunger Artist’ (haunting). And these are just his longer stories. Many of the shorter works and fragments also appeal, featuring moments of unraveling, sadomasochistic drives, nonsensical time, more intuitive animals, interrupted solitude and more.

But ‘In the Penal Colony’ is the story I would cite as my favourite. It is odd, cruel, fascinating, sad and unresolved.

Read the rest, here.

And The Gum Wall is certainly celebrating LiteraryMinded‘s third birthday in style, with a giveaway (and Kool & the Gang)! Thanks also for the She-Ra comparison, Laurie – much appreciated.

To find out how you can win books, check out the celebration/competition post, here!