A sweeping, tragic romance and feminist adventure about translator and resistance fighter Milena Jesenská's torrid love affair with Franz Kafka.
In 1919, Milena Jesenská, a clever and spirited twenty-three-year-old, is trapped in an unhappy marriage to literary critic Ernst Pollak. Since Pollak is unable to support the pair in Vienna's post-war economy, Jesenská must supplement their income by working as a translator. Having previously met her compatriot Franz Kafka in the literary salons of Prague, she writes to him to ask for permission to translate his story The Stoker from German to Czech, becoming Kafka's first translator. The letter launches an intense and increasingly passionate correspondence. Jesenská is captivated by Kafka's energy, intensity, and burning ambition to write. Kafka is fascinated by Jesenská's wit, rebellious spirit, and intelligence.
Jesenská and Kafka meet twice for lovers' trysts, but can such an intense connection endure beyond a fleeting affair? In her remarkable debut novel, Christine Estima weaves little-known facts and fiction into a rich tapestry, powerfully portraying the struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of wife, lover, and intellectual.
A sweeping, tragic romance and feminist adventure about translator and resistance fighter Milena Jesenská's torrid love affair with Franz Kafka.
• RECENTRING WOMEN: Letters to Kafka is another brilliant addition to a string of historical fiction that recentres women in the stories of famous men like The Paris Wife (Ballantine Books; 2011), Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (St. Martin's Press; 2013), and A Daughter's Place (House of Anansi; 2025).
• 20TH CENTURY HISTORICAL ROMANCE: Crafted from years of research and compelling historical details from the real life of Milena Jesenská, who after Kafka's death in 1924, would go on to become a resistance fighter.
• LEGACY: She contributed to banned publications denouncing the Nazi occupiers and hid Jewish people and dissidents in her home. She was imprisoned in 1939 at Ravensbrück concentration camp and died there in 1944.
• DEBUT NOVEL: Letters to Kafka is Christine Estima's debut novel. Her debut short story collection, The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society, (House of Anansi; 2023) was named one of the CBC's Best Books of 2023
