Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is one of the most important writers of the 20th century. A German speaker of Jewish descent, he lived in what is now the Czech Republic and wrote his works in German. His work moves between realism and fantasy, exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, and bureaucratic absurdity. Among his most important books are the novella The Metamorphosis (1915) and the novels The Trial (1925), The Tower (1926), and America (1927). The Guardian of the Tomb is his only play, written in 1916, almost unknown and unperformed in Greece.