Kafka's Last Love: The Mystery of Dora Diamant

Kathi Diamant does a masterful job of compiling volumes of Franz Kafka's long-lost documents and photographs found in Cominterm files and Gestapo archives, and from notes, a diary, and letters from Kafka's last love, Dora Diamant (no relation to Kathi Diamant, to her knowledge). This paperback edition of 344 pages plus notes, is a poignant story of Dora's undying love for Kafka during their short time together, less than... Read Full Review

Kathi Diamant's "mission to find Dora" began in 1985, fourteen years after she first heard of "Dora Diamant-Kafka" and it would be another eighteen years before publishing the results of her mission to better understand Kafka and the love of his life, a mission she says is not yet complete. The author brings to life the events we passed over quickly in world history. For example, the hyperinflation in Germany after WWI, where... Read Full Review

I was drawn to this book because the author's search for Dora's life story was fascinating and inspiring. I expected an interesting biography, but ended up with a page-turner. While the story itself has many elements of an intrigue novel (a short and doomed love story, dramatic and tragic death, escapes from the Gestapo, locales in several countries, the mysterious fate of Kafka's documents, missing diaries, and reunited... Read Full Review

Kathi Diamant in this work tells the story of the last love of Kafka's life, Dora Dyamant. In doing so she reveals a Kafka quite different from the standard image of him. He is revealed here as an especially magnetic, kind, humorous and playful - even loving individual. The story of his meeting with Dora Dyamant when he was already ill with tuberculosis, their falling in love, and deciding to live together, her devotion to... Read Full Review

There are many unknown facets of Kafka's life, and until any existing lost records (taken by the Gestapo, or destroyed by Kafka or Diamant) appear, the mysteries will continue. This book solves one of these mysteries, that of the intensity of Dora's brief (less than a year) relationship with Kafka, which was the defining and long-lasting event of her life. The narrative is quite fascinating, both in its revelations of Kafka,... Read Full Review