The Samsa Files

Gregor Samsa is changing. Expelled from the Army, disoriented by the stresses undergone during treatment at a sanatorium, and pressured into a job he loathes, Gregor clings to writing as a source of identity. In his diaries and notebooks, Gregor struggles to make sense of the world, his body, his relationships with others, and the workings of his own mind. As he contends with his inner dualism—the urge to create and the impulse to self-destruct—the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. In this reimagining of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s human past is revealed through written forms such as diary entries, letters, interviews, and telegrams. As readers encounter a variety of narrative structures, gaps in recorded history, and a chorus of unreliable narrators, they are invited to take part in puzzling together the story of a life on the verge of an extraordinary transformation.