METAMORPHOSIS

In one of the most bizarre and startling openings to any novel, Franz Kafka begins The Metamorphosis (original German title: "Die Verwandlung") with the main character waking up to find that overnight he has somehow transformed into a human sized beetle-like insect. His family is disgraced and disgusted. He becomes an outsider in the world, alienated and isolated. The comic absurdity of the plot highlight themes of alienation, inadequacy, isolation and guilt. Harrowing and thought provoking this is one of the most influential and widely read works of 20th Century fiction.