Fiction. Revised edition. Translated from the German by Kevin Blahut. Frontispiece by Richard Teschne. First published in 1914, this acclaimed novel is set in Prague, a city of darkened walls and strange decay which forms the backdrop for Severin's erotic adventures and fateful encounters A a¬A a world of femmes fatales, Russian anarchists, dabblers in the occult, and denizens of decadent salons. Subitled "A Prague Ghost Story," Leppin seeks to unlock the mysterious erotic nature of his native city buried deep in the subconscious of its inhabitants. As Max Brod so aptly remarked: "Leppin was the truly chosen bard of the painfully disappearing old Prague, its infamous sidestreets and debauched nights . . . a poet of eternal disillusionment, he was at once a servant of the devil and an adorer of the Madonna."

Contemplation, Kafka's first published book (1913), was one of the few to appear in his lifetime. Composed of eighteen short prose poems, the book as a whole displays the full range of Kafka's compact metaphorical style. In this new translation, Blahut has been faithful to the original German while rendering it in a fresh, contemporary English. This edition is complimented by eighteen black & white illustrations, attesting to the lasting inspiration of Kafka's prose. The three volumes Twisted Spoon has published Contemplation, A Country Doctor, and A Hunger Artist represent the collections of stories that Kafka had published during his lifetime. Though each volume has its own distinctive character, they have most often appeared in English in collected editions. They are presented here in new translations, each with its own illustrator from the Prague community.

Fiction. Translation. Hermann Ungar (1893-1929) was born to a prominent Jewish family in Boskovice, Moravia and studied in Berlin and Prague where he later lived. THE MAIMED is a novel set in Prague that relates the story of a neurotic, socially inept bank clerk who is eventually forced to have sexual relations with his widowed landlady. He must also witness the physical and mental deterioration of a friend who is suffering from an unnamed disease. Part psychological farce, THE MAIMED is a dark, ironic tale of chaos overtaking one's meticulously ordered life. This is the first time Hermann Ungar's work has appeared in English. In his time, Ungar was praised by Thomas Mann who commented about THE MAIMED ."a sexual hell, full of filth, crime and the deepest melancholy--a monomaniacal digression of an inwardly pure artistry...." Translated from the German by Kevin Blahut. Illustrated by Pavel Rut.