The Trial is the horrifying story of Josef K., a respected bank officer who is unexpectedly and mysteriously imprisoned and must defend himself against a charge about which he can learn nothing. It was written in 1914 but was not published until 1925, a year after Kafka's death. The Trial has reverberated with terrifying truth for generations of readers, whether it is taken as an existential narrative, a parable, or a premonition of the excesses of contemporary bureaucracy married to the madness of totalitarianism.