Life after Kafka

Who is Felicia Bauer, to whom Franz Kafka addressed several hundred pages of letters? This is the question Magdalena Platzová asked herself when she wrote the novel “Life after Kafka”. The result is a book that deserves the attention of both researchers of the figure of Kafka and those who have never delved deeper into the work of the most famous Prague writer.
The author began searching for traces of Felicia in America in 2010, when her son was still alive. Meetings with him and his family became the basis of the book, which ultimately tells not only about Felicia, but also about other people connected with Kafka, whose destinies were closely intertwined with pre-war Europe and its ruins.
The main action of the book takes place between 1935 and 1960, between individual characters and cities: from New York through Lyon, Paris and Geneva to, say, Tel Aviv. Historical ruptures that intervene in the lives of key characters often occur rather against the backdrop of a narrative of everyday things. Somewhere in the shadow of the novel, Franz Kafka is constantly present. Given the time span, he appears only in memories, hints, reminiscences; like a phantom that follows Felicia Bauer (and other characters), like a shadow that, although it appears rarely, is extremely intense.