Lovers of Franz K. Burhan Sönmez with Kirsty Gunn novelist BookBlast® Book Club

Book Club Lovers of Franz K. Burhan Sönmez with Kirsty Gunn, novelist

Lovers of Franz K. by Burhan Sönmez appears to be focused on the fate of Ferdy Kaplan who is arrested in 1968 West Berlin for killing a twenty-year-old student at a bus stop, and seriously injuring an elderly man who turns out to be Max Brod, literary executor of Franz Kafka. Kommissar Müller’s interrogation of Kaplan about his motives evolves as a series of mind games as interrogator and suspect spar in a mental representation of conflict. Ultimately, however, Lovers of Franz K is an interrogation about whether Max Brod was right or wrong for not burning Kafka’s manuscripts.   

Recorded live at the Bookblast Book Club in March 2026, this wide-ranging discussion at Hatchards Piccadilly includes insights from Kirsty Gunn, novelist and professor of creative writing. The conversation covers the impact of storytelling on our perception of reality, the responsibilities of a literary executor, the ‘living momentum' of a work of literature once it enters the public sphere, and more.

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Edited by Gemma Jackson | A BookBlast® Production