What happens when Kafka’s legacy escapes the page? Burhan Sönmez and Ken Krimstein reimagine the writer’s world—one through a subversive thriller, the other through a graphic novel—revealing how his ideas still shape our struggles with truth, power, and artistic rebellion.
In Lovers of Franz K., PEN president Burhan Sönmez (writing for the first time in Kurdish) spins a tale of literary vengeance: Max Brod, Kafka’s executor, is hunted by radicals for betraying the author’s dying wish. Spanning Istanbul to Paris ’68, Sönmez turns archival disobedience into a gripping meditation on who controls a writer’s voice.
Meanwhile, Einstein in Kafkaland by New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein uncovers the parallel obsessions of Kafka and Einstein during their Prague years—both chasing “the true truth” against all odds. With playful visuals and sharp insight, Krimstein shows genius flickering to life in ordinary moments, as Kafka pens The Judgment in one electrifying night.
Two bold reinventions of Kafka’s enduring puzzle: Can art ever really belong to its creator?
Date
Jun 22, 11:00am to 12:00pm
Featuring
Burhan Sönmez
Burhan Sönmez is the author of six novels, which have been published in more than thirty languages, including Lovers of Franz K. He was born in Turkey and grew up speaking Turkish and Kurdish. He worked as a lawyer in Istanbul before going into political exile in Britain. Sönmez’s writing has appeared in such publications as The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, and La Repubblica. His previous novels include Labyrinth (Other Press, 2019) and Stone and Shadow (Other Press, 2023). He was elected president of PEN International in 2021.
Ken Krimstein
Ken Krimstein is a cartoonist, author, and educator whose work appears in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Chicago Tribune. His book, Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came up with the Universe was published by Bloomsbury in 2024. His 2021 book, When I Grow Up – The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers was been named an NPR Best Book of the Year, Washington Post Best Book of the Year and Top Ten Graphic Novel of 2021. His 2018 book The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt won the Bernard J. Bromel Award for Biography and Memoir. He teaches at DePaul University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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