The Last Days of Franz Kafka

“And how late it is already!” So ended one of Franz Kafka’s final diary entries; the last was dated 12 June 1923, less than a year before he died on 3 June 1924. The second weekend of this year’s Hay Festival coincides with the 100th anniversary of the last two days of Kafka’s life, a tragic moment in literary history but one also charged with hope, because of his irrepressible spirit and immortal work, which survived despite its author’s wishes.

To mark the centenary, the London Review of Books has mined its remarkable archive to publish a chorus of the different ways its writers have thought about Kafka over the years. This one-off performance is interspersed with readings from Kafka’s own later diary entries, by special guests Toby Jones and Julian Rhind-Tutt; and music from Max Richter’s The Blue Notebooks, itself inspired by Kafka’s journals, played by the celebrated organist James McVinnie.