Kafka is a headliner! Franz Kafka is in the international news this week. July 3 marked the 125th anniversary of his birth with special events held in his honor in Germany and elsewhere. The following story broke July 8 in Ha'aretz, one of Israel's major daily newspapers, and today a follow up article appeared in The Guardian in London. The front page tease reads: Franz Kafka: Papers Found. The headline itself reads:

"End of a Kafkaesque nightmare: writer's papers finally come to light
Documents hoarded for 40 years in Tel Aviv flat by executor's secretary"

These are not the same papers the Kafka Project is looking for in Eastern Europe, although I think it a lovely omen that this is the second Kafka discovery since the Magical Mystery Literary History tour began last month. The first discovery was in Prague in mid-June of a previously unknown, unpublished letter Kafka wrote to another lover, Julie Wohyrzek, in 1919. The papers which are about to be uncovered in Israel are extremely important to Dora's version of events. When they are made available, a second edition of my book, Kafka's Last Love: The Mystery of Dora Diamant, will no doubt be necessary. These papers, which belonged to Max Brod, contain dozens of letters that Dora Diamant wrote to Brod after Kafka's death in 1924 until her own death in 1952. They also contain Dora's last will, which no one but Max Brod (and Ester Hoffe) has seen. It's an extremely important discovery, and the Kafka world is indeed "holding its breath."

There is also a fascinating review by Zadie Smith in The New York Review of Books (July 17, 2008) of a new book about Kafka. Definitely worthwhile reading. Zadie Smith is a London-based best-selling, award-winning novelist who made headlines herself last year with the announcement she was writing a musical about Kafka. One can only hope.

(Thanks to Ehud Gelb, Dale Estey, Steve Schlesinger and Miriam Shekter for keeping me informed while I'm on the road!) 

While the Kafka Project cooks up new angles of approach for the research in Poland, let's revisit some earlier points of interest, shall we? This will be fun, if you ever intend to visit, and one would fervently hope, spend some time in the fabulous city of Berlin. 

Getting around via BVG:  If you are moderately fit, the best way to navigate is to use the public transportation system, BVG, which is nothing less than brilliant. Our last Friday in Berlin, Byron and I went from our incredibly bizarre dinner experience at Unsicht-Bar Restaurant in the center of Mitte to our sleepy southern suburb in Kleinmachnow in about 45 minutes. Just before midnight, we left the dark restaurant (review to come) and traveled by tram to the U-bahn, changed to the S-bahn, where we'd left our bikes earlier that day, and then biked the two kilometers home from the Zelendorf Station. A taxi ride from roughly the same location took about the same time, but cost $60, six times as much. 

If you are staying more than a few days, go ahead, spring for a week-long pass. You can go anywhere and everywhere, and not worry about buying a ticket. It's a public transportation theme park with unlimited rides on buses, trams, streetcars, S-bahn and U-bahn trains. It's easy and fun even if you have absolutely no German language skills. Just ask Vernetta, my tap dance teacher and one of the Magical Mystery travelers. She was thrilled with her proficiency getting back from a shopping excursion at KaDeWe. 

You can't get lost in Berlin. Not really, not for very long.