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Letters to Kafka
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Expected 9 Sep 25A sweeping, tragic romance and feminist adventure about translator and resistance fighter Milena Jesenská’s torrid love affair with Franz Kafka.
In 1919, Milena Jesenská, a clever and spirited twenty-three-year-old, is trapped in an unhappy marriage to literary critic Ernst Pollak. Since Pollak is unable to support the pair in Vienna’s post-war economy, Jesenská must supplement their income by working as a translator. Having previously met her compatriot Franz Kafka in the literary salons of Prague, she writes to him to ask for permission to translate his story The Stoker from German to Czech, becoming Kafka’s first translator. The letter launches an intense and increasingly passionate correspondence. Jesenská is captivated by Kafka’s energy, intensity, and burning ambition to write. Kafka is fascinated by Jesenská’s wit, rebellious spirit, and intelligence.
Jesenská and Kafka meet twice for lovers’ trysts, but can such an intense connection endure beyond a fleeting affair? In her remarkable debut novel, Christine Estima weaves little-known facts and fiction into a rich tapestry, powerfully portraying the struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of wife, lover, and intellectual.
In 1919, Milena Jesenská, a clever and spirited twenty-three-year-old, is trapped in an unhappy marriage to literary critic Ernst Pollak. Since Pollak is unable to support the pair in Vienna’s post-war economy, Jesenská must supplement their income by working as a translator. Having previously met her compatriot Franz Kafka in the literary salons of Prague, she writes to him to ask for permission to translate his story The Stoker from German to Czech, becoming Kafka’s first translator. The letter launches an intense and increasingly passionate correspondence. Jesenská is captivated by Kafka’s energy, intensity, and burning ambition to write. Kafka is fascinated by Jesenská’s wit, rebellious spirit, and intelligence.
Jesenská and Kafka meet twice for lovers’ trysts, but can such an intense connection endure beyond a fleeting affair? In her remarkable debut novel, Christine Estima weaves little-known facts and fiction into a rich tapestry, powerfully portraying the struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of wife, lover, and intellectual.
384 pages, Paperback
Expected publication September 9, 2025
12 people are currently reading
4375 people want to read
About the author
Christine Estima
2 books32 followersChristine Estima is the author of THE SYRIAN LADIES BENEVOLENT SOCIETY (2023) and LETTERS TO KAFKA (2025). Her essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times, Vice, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Observer, the New York Daily News, Chatelaine, the Walrus, Refinery 29, Bitch, Maisonneuve, and elsewhere.
Her short story "Your Hands Are Blessed" was selected for the BEST CANADIAN STORIES 2023 anthology.
Follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cestima
Her short story "Your Hands Are Blessed" was selected for the BEST CANADIAN STORIES 2023 anthology.
Follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cestima
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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April 23, 2025DNF. This just isn't for me.
June 8, 2025
Before reading this interesting novel I had to do some research on Milena Jesenska because I had no idea who she was. In my findings. I discovered that she was a journalist in Czechoslovakia best known for exchanging passionate letters with Franz Kafka. She also was a resistance fighter during the second world war which eventually lead to her downfall. I will admit this ended up being a history lesson for me but overall I was enjoyed with my findings and with the story itself. I have read novels before of women working the resistance but they weren't instense as this one. I will keep this review short as I don't wish to reveal too much
The novel begina in 1919 with Milena being married to a man she literally depises. She takes on a job translating and from thers takes up correspondence with Franz Kafka. The two manage to meet up various times for lovers trysts but nothing ever develops more between them. Eventually she goes through life marrying several more times. At the start of the second world war she is doing everything in her power to make things better but like anyone who gets caught things don't go well as planned.
I received an arc copy from Netgalley and all opinions are of my own.
The novel begina in 1919 with Milena being married to a man she literally depises. She takes on a job translating and from thers takes up correspondence with Franz Kafka. The two manage to meet up various times for lovers trysts but nothing ever develops more between them. Eventually she goes through life marrying several more times. At the start of the second world war she is doing everything in her power to make things better but like anyone who gets caught things don't go well as planned.
I received an arc copy from Netgalley and all opinions are of my own.
August 19, 2025
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.5 of 5
This was beautiful.
Milena Jesenská was a Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator. It was in the latter role that she rose to some small fame as she was one of the first to translate the works of Franz Kafka from German to Czech. She'd discovered one of his stories which made an impact on her and she wrote directly to him and asked if she could do the translation. This letter started an intense and passionate exchange between them.
Milena was married to Ernst Pollak, a literary critic. His income was poor, which was why Milena began translating. But through the letter exchange with Kafka, Milena lived a vicarious affair. They did meet twice to consummate the affair.
But as neither of them could commit (at the same time) to leaving the safety of their known lives, their relationship - both romantic and epistolary -weighed heavily on them and their attitudes turned colder.
Later in life, as a dictator rose to power in Germany and began eradicating Jews, Milena, who joined a resistance movement to help Jews, was brought in for questioning. The fact that she had been married to a Jew (Ernst) and worked closely with a Jew (Kafka), she was considered no better than a Jew by the Nazis and would be treated as such.
Beautiful and amazing.
Author Christine Estima has written an epic literary work that is part biography, part romance, part historical fiction, and part tragedy. It's hard to see where fact and fiction separate in this work. Estima climbs into the heart of Milena and finds and shares her strength as she stands up to the Nazis and presents Milena's heart in the same way that Milena shares Kafka's heart through her translations of his work.
It's wonderful how Christine Estima has brought this story, of this strong, determined woman, to life. What she went through, what she how she took control, what she survived (and what she didn't) in the early 20th century is nothing less than miraculous. It's sad that she survives in our consciousness only because of a man and her brief affair with him. Had he not been Kafka or someone equally notable, Milena would most likely have been completely forgotten.
But how sweet that Estima has written this story from Milena's point of view. It makes sense and I can't imagine it any other way.
This has me more interested in Milena Jesenská (I've been a tremendous Kafka fan for decades) and I've picked up a biography of her, written by a woman she befriended in a concentration camp, because of this book.
I finished this book days ago and I've been thinking about it and specific scenes since, it has that much power. I look forward to reading more by Christine Estima.
Looking for a good book? Letters to Kafka by Christine Estima is a sweeping tale of one woman of history. It is powerful and beautiful.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
This was beautiful.
Milena Jesenská was a Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator. It was in the latter role that she rose to some small fame as she was one of the first to translate the works of Franz Kafka from German to Czech. She'd discovered one of his stories which made an impact on her and she wrote directly to him and asked if she could do the translation. This letter started an intense and passionate exchange between them.
Milena was married to Ernst Pollak, a literary critic. His income was poor, which was why Milena began translating. But through the letter exchange with Kafka, Milena lived a vicarious affair. They did meet twice to consummate the affair.
But as neither of them could commit (at the same time) to leaving the safety of their known lives, their relationship - both romantic and epistolary -weighed heavily on them and their attitudes turned colder.
Later in life, as a dictator rose to power in Germany and began eradicating Jews, Milena, who joined a resistance movement to help Jews, was brought in for questioning. The fact that she had been married to a Jew (Ernst) and worked closely with a Jew (Kafka), she was considered no better than a Jew by the Nazis and would be treated as such.
Beautiful and amazing.
Author Christine Estima has written an epic literary work that is part biography, part romance, part historical fiction, and part tragedy. It's hard to see where fact and fiction separate in this work. Estima climbs into the heart of Milena and finds and shares her strength as she stands up to the Nazis and presents Milena's heart in the same way that Milena shares Kafka's heart through her translations of his work.
It's wonderful how Christine Estima has brought this story, of this strong, determined woman, to life. What she went through, what she how she took control, what she survived (and what she didn't) in the early 20th century is nothing less than miraculous. It's sad that she survives in our consciousness only because of a man and her brief affair with him. Had he not been Kafka or someone equally notable, Milena would most likely have been completely forgotten.
But how sweet that Estima has written this story from Milena's point of view. It makes sense and I can't imagine it any other way.
This has me more interested in Milena Jesenská (I've been a tremendous Kafka fan for decades) and I've picked up a biography of her, written by a woman she befriended in a concentration camp, because of this book.
I finished this book days ago and I've been thinking about it and specific scenes since, it has that much power. I look forward to reading more by Christine Estima.
Looking for a good book? Letters to Kafka by Christine Estima is a sweeping tale of one woman of history. It is powerful and beautiful.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
August 29, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher (House of Annasi Press) for the ARC! Review is my own.
"Now that I'm grown I want to threaten people with my wit. I want to charm people with my charisma. I want to be otherworldly. I want to scorch every heart and engulf every spirit I encounter. I want to be loved and helplessly adored for the power of my thoughts."
This book has me begging for the world to give a second chance to a man and woman who died over 80-100 years ago!
Vienna/Europe during this time (rise of Vienna Secession - WWII) is something I find incredibly interesting and was my initial reason for requesting the book. I did not know much about Franz and Milena, only bits of his letters, so the name dropping of prominent figures in the beginning got me hooked (Klimt, Schiele, Sinclair).
The author writes so beautifully. Poetic prose that really immersed the reader in Vienna and Prague. I haven’t been to either city since 2019 but the way she wrote it was correct, it felt ephemeral yet giant. Like you are constantly retracing someone else's footsteps.
Mostly though I think the author did a phenomenal job of portraying the heartbreaking love between Franz and Milena. Weaving in the real writings with ones imagined - knowing they couldn’t and wouldn’t be together but desperate for a taste of one another - it felt real. After getting to know Milena I think that Estima probably got as close as we could ever picture someone getting after Kafka himself.
‘Affair’ seems so meek and dirty and distasteful to describe these two. If a man wrote to me ‘I need all the time I have and a thousand times more than all the time I have and most of all I’d like to have all the time there is just for you, for thinking about you, for breathing you in” and then history called it a mere affair I’d come back and HAUNT them. I think the author hit this point that we can call it brief but to call it weak is a disservice.
Milena had such a sad life (hard family life, bad marriages, loss, arrests/psych holds, being captured by nazis), but Estima never made it seem like Milena saw it that way. In those hardships, she made the her life beautiful in ways that mattered to her. She read and wrote, took risks, helped people escape the nazis. An incredibly interesting, intellectual woman until the end. Almost too cool for Franz, which I think he knew too.
I also didn’t know that the “If BLANK has 100 fans i am one of them, if they have one its me, if they have none then im dead” trend came from KAFKA TO MILENA!!!
Milena, if a million loved you, I am one of them, and if one loved you, it was me, if no one loved you then know that I am dead. - FK
Anyway I will be reading ‘Letters to Milena’ to further hurt myself.
"Now that I'm grown I want to threaten people with my wit. I want to charm people with my charisma. I want to be otherworldly. I want to scorch every heart and engulf every spirit I encounter. I want to be loved and helplessly adored for the power of my thoughts."
This book has me begging for the world to give a second chance to a man and woman who died over 80-100 years ago!
Vienna/Europe during this time (rise of Vienna Secession - WWII) is something I find incredibly interesting and was my initial reason for requesting the book. I did not know much about Franz and Milena, only bits of his letters, so the name dropping of prominent figures in the beginning got me hooked (Klimt, Schiele, Sinclair).
The author writes so beautifully. Poetic prose that really immersed the reader in Vienna and Prague. I haven’t been to either city since 2019 but the way she wrote it was correct, it felt ephemeral yet giant. Like you are constantly retracing someone else's footsteps.
Mostly though I think the author did a phenomenal job of portraying the heartbreaking love between Franz and Milena. Weaving in the real writings with ones imagined - knowing they couldn’t and wouldn’t be together but desperate for a taste of one another - it felt real. After getting to know Milena I think that Estima probably got as close as we could ever picture someone getting after Kafka himself.
‘Affair’ seems so meek and dirty and distasteful to describe these two. If a man wrote to me ‘I need all the time I have and a thousand times more than all the time I have and most of all I’d like to have all the time there is just for you, for thinking about you, for breathing you in” and then history called it a mere affair I’d come back and HAUNT them. I think the author hit this point that we can call it brief but to call it weak is a disservice.
Milena had such a sad life (hard family life, bad marriages, loss, arrests/psych holds, being captured by nazis), but Estima never made it seem like Milena saw it that way. In those hardships, she made the her life beautiful in ways that mattered to her. She read and wrote, took risks, helped people escape the nazis. An incredibly interesting, intellectual woman until the end. Almost too cool for Franz, which I think he knew too.
I also didn’t know that the “If BLANK has 100 fans i am one of them, if they have one its me, if they have none then im dead” trend came from KAFKA TO MILENA!!!
Milena, if a million loved you, I am one of them, and if one loved you, it was me, if no one loved you then know that I am dead. - FK
Anyway I will be reading ‘Letters to Milena’ to further hurt myself.
September 5, 2025
3.5 stars
This book is set between world wars in a time of significant change. Women’s rights and roles are evolving although not quick enough for Milena Jesenka. Based on a true account Milena and Franz Kafka have a passionate affair which the author does a brilliant job in imagining. I enjoyed this book and the author is incredibly talented for this to be a debut.
Thank you House of Anansi for the complimentary copy.
This book is set between world wars in a time of significant change. Women’s rights and roles are evolving although not quick enough for Milena Jesenka. Based on a true account Milena and Franz Kafka have a passionate affair which the author does a brilliant job in imagining. I enjoyed this book and the author is incredibly talented for this to be a debut.
Thank you House of Anansi for the complimentary copy.
August 31, 2025
*full review pending*
I’ve read sooo many historical fiction novels and this one takes the cake. It’s truly a masterpiece steeped in reality with amazing research and historical insights.
I can see why the author was so enthralled with Milena Jesenská and wanted to tell her story.
Thank you to House of Anansi Press for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve read sooo many historical fiction novels and this one takes the cake. It’s truly a masterpiece steeped in reality with amazing research and historical insights.
I can see why the author was so enthralled with Milena Jesenská and wanted to tell her story.
Thank you to House of Anansi Press for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.
August 17, 2025
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