The Burrow

Strange beasts, night terrors, absurd bureaucrats and sinister places abound in this collection of stories by Franz Kafka. Some are less than a page long, others more substantial; all were unpublished in his lifetime. These matchless short works range from the gleeful miniature horror ''Little Fable'' to the off-kilter humour of ''Investigations of a Dog'', and from the elaborate waking nightmare of ''Building the Great Wall of China'' to the creeping unease of ''The Burrow'', where a nameless creature''s labyrinthine hiding place turns into a trap of fear and paranoia.