Tough-O-Meter

We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)

(7) Snow Line

Kafka's The Trial challenges its readers with some really big questions about justice, violence, and authority. But it does so through a relatively accessible story about a man who is unjustly persecuted for an unnamed crime. The weighty themes of the story are tempered by absurd moments typical of Kafka's fiction.