In the end, out of nothing at all, an enormous fabric of guilt will be conjured up.

One morning Josef K. is arrested for a crime he did not commit. In fact, he is never even told the nature of the offence. His life is thrown into turmoil as he becomes enmeshed in a struggle to prove his innocence. As the confounding case unfolds, K. is ultimately powerless - battling against a remote and uncaring bureaucracy.

Filled with psychological tension and disconcerting parallels with the modern world, The Trial is a dystopian masterpiece by one of Germany's greatest writers.