Reading Groups

Kafka's Amerika and Ours with Martha Cooley

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4 Sessions Sundays, 11:30 am EDT - 1:00 pm EDT February 1 to April 12, 2026

Online via Zoom

Amerika The Missing Person: A New Translation, Based on the Restored Text The Schocken Kafka Library Franz Kafka

The ‘With Books’ option includes the titles required for this group at a 10% discount from our Bookstore.

Meeting Dates:
2/1, 2/22, 3/15, 4/12
Online via Zoom

Kafka’s marvelous early novel Amerika manages to be many things at once—a picaresque romp, a dive into dark corners of the imagination, a coming-of-age tale, and an oddly prescient “take” on American life, among much else. In this group, we’ll discuss Kafka’s biography, read several of his short stories that set the stage for Amerika’s concerns, then, accompanied by a few critical essays, we’ll dig into the book itself.

Reading List:

What to read in advance of the first meeting: Please read the following pieces in The Great Short Works of Franz Kafka:

“Introduction”
“Great Noise”
“Decisions”
“The Way Home”
“The Passenger”
“The Rejection”

What to expect from this reading group: What to expect from this reading group: A conversational, participant-driven experience, with contextual information and possible interpretative approaches provided.

Pricing inclusive of sales tax if applicable. Please note: All virtual classes are recorded. Please click here for information about our recording policy.

Led by

Martha Cooley

Martha Cooley

Martha Cooley is the author of an essay collection, My Little Donkey; three novels—The Archivist, a national bestseller published in a dozen foreign markets, Thirty-Three Swoons, and Buy Me Love; a memoir, Guesswork: A Reckoning With Loss; and a co-translation, Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi. A 2017 O. Henry Prize winner, Martha taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars and is a Professor Emerita at Adelphi University. She lives in Castiglione del Terziere, Italy, with her husband and about a dozen cats.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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