09/10/2026
The London Library contains books in, on, and translated from a whole world of languages. To celebrate the incredible scope of that collection, we are delighted to introduce our new Translation Salon, which will explore multiple perspectives and ideas around language and the intricate art of translation. For our inaugural salon, host, translator and translation expert Daniel Hahn will be joined by Maïa Hruska, author of a new book, Kafkaesque, which tells the story of the translators who saved the work of Franz Kafka from oblivion.
For years after his early death, Kafka existed almost entirely through the wildly different readings of his words by his early translators, many of whom would later be counted amongst the greatest thinkers and writers of all time. Primo Levi translated Kafka into Italian from the German he had learned in Auschwitz; Milena Jesenská lovingly into Czech before being deported; Bruno Schulz into Polish before being shot by an SS officer; and Jorge Luis Borges into Spanish as he slowly went blind in Buenos Aires. His French translator found new humour hidden inside Kafka’s work, while his Russian translators were condemned to perpetual anonymity by the Soviet censor.
Come along and join the conversation about this fascinating history of Kafka’s work, the act of translation and some of the greatest minds, tragedies and absurdities of the twentieth century. Get your tickets here: https://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/whats-on/translation-salon-kafkaesque
In partnership with the Jewish Literary Foundation.
