Kafka8217;s con

In a scandal that8217;s sending shock waves through both the publishing industry and academia, the author Franz Kafka has been revealed to be a fraud.

In a scandal that8217;s sending shock waves through both the publishing industry and academia, the author Franz Kafka has been revealed to be a fraud.

8220;The Metamorphosis 8212; purported to be the fictional account of a man who turns into a large cockroach 8212; is actually non-fiction,8221; according to a statement released by Mr Kafka8217;s editor, who spoke only on the condition that he be identified as E.

8220;The story is true. Kafka simply wrote a completely verifiable, journalistic account of a neighbour by the name of Gregor Samsa who, because of some bizarre medical condition, turned into a 8216;monstrous vermin.8217; Kafka assured us that he8217;d made the whole thing up. We now know that to be completely false. The account is 100 per cent true.8221;

In the wake of recent revelations concerning Margaret B. Jones8217;s memoir Love and Consequences and Misha Defonseca8217;s Misha: A Meacute;moire of the Holocaust Years, the disclosure that Mr Kafka8217;s work was based on reality has embarrassed editors and scholars.

8220;I8217;ve been teaching The Metamorphosis for years, said a professor of literature at Princeton, who insisted that he be identified as P. 8220;I8217;ve called it one of the most sublime pieces of literature ever written. Elias Canetti called it 8216;one of the few great and perfect poetic works written during this century.8217; To find out that it8217;s actually true is devastating.8221;

The actual condition of Kafka8217;s neighbour, a Prague salesman who didn8217;t return our calls or e-mail messages requesting comment, is known as entomological dysplasia, and is somewhat rare. It results in the development over time of a hard carapace, a segmented body and antennas.

In a telephone interview, Mr Kafka was contrite and tearful. 8220;I know what I did was wrong,8221; he said. 8220;I8217;m very alienated from myself, but that8217;s no excuse to lie. I took someone8217;s life and selfishly turned it into an enigmatic literary parable.8221;

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8220;I8217;m not sure how this happened,8221; said Mr Kafka8217;s brother, B., of Oxnard, Calif. 8220;My brother is weird, but he doesn8217;t have that good an imagination. A man who becomes a big bug8230; my brother couldn8217;t make that up if his life depended on it. As soon as I read The Metamorphosis I knew it was true. Don8217;t they fact-check fiction?8221;

Mr Kafka8217;s publishers are now reviewing all his works of fiction 8212; stories about singing mice, 8220;hunger artists8221; and men on trial for crimes they8217;re not aware of having committed 8212; to determine whether they too are true.

8220;We were duped,8221; said E., Mr Kafka8217;s editor. 8220;The whole story is pure, unadulterated non-fiction. This guy8217;s a complete con man.8221;

Mark Leyner is a novelist and screenwriter