Judge on trial

Abstract

‘He knew the case inside out, and he also knew that a double, particularly brutal murder called for the death penalty: a life for a life. He ought therefore to turn the case down, but was that not just what they were waiting for—waiting for him to do something of the sort—so that they could get rid of him.’

Prague: “Little Mother with Claws”? (Franz Kafka) – “Fata Morgana of Life”? (Franz Werfel)

“…Emerging from the complex political situation the country was undergoing for many decades, these works are of particular interest for an international audience. Ivan Klíma's Judge on Trial, 16 published in samizdat in 1978 and revised ten years later, traces the Kafkaesque misfortunes of the narrator Adam Kindl who is a judge in a country where the law has become an instrument of repression. When handed a case to lead the trial against a young man accused of murder, Kindl realizes that not only the defendant (whether he has committed the crime or not) but he, the judge, will also be on trial.…”