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The Trial
- Penguin Classics
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
This Penguin Classic is performed by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, winner of the 2019 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis - an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life - including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door - becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.
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What listeners say about The Trial
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Story
- James C.
- 01-02-20
Could not stand narrator
Did not like narrator, half way through bought another copy with different narration. Book was good.
6 people found this helpful
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- Kaye
- 17-03-21
Important novel
Superbly sinister, a metaphor for the mystery of life. Josef K. is in an unidentified place, awash in a legal nightmare, where he is arrested without knowing why, and bound fast by a burocratic machine... and as if that's not enough, he keeps getting seduced by incidental women.
2 people found this helpful
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- Jay
- 21-08-20
Too clever for me
Although coming to the story aware of Kafka's love of the absurd and alienation, I expected to understand what was (or more accurately wasn't) said. However, I come away not really having an idea of the point of it all.
2 people found this helpful
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- Victoria L Martin
- 24-05-22
To be avoided.
Terrible narration of a classic novel. Implausible accents are used for the different characters or the words are delivered in a painful monotone which totally distracts the listener from the writing.
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- emeralda
- 19-05-22
Excellent narration voice
This is a classic read, it’s about K, a man whose every move is blocked by others, and it’s about how he decides to cope with the situation. There’s something Kafka-esque in life at one time or another for all of us so I too can relate to it. I love the narrator’s interpretation of being K, just love it. I would have given up with a book, but Kobna makes it interesting.