Franz Kafka (Author) Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born of Jewish parents in Prague. Several of his story collections were published in his lifetime and his novels, The Trial, The Castle and Amerika, were published posthumously by his editor Max Brod.J. A. Underwood (Translator) J. A. Underwood is a distinguished translator of German and French. He has translated, among others, Freud, Canetti, Kafka, Benjamin, Gombrowicz, Bachelard and Robbe-Grillet.