The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

No one has better described the human condition with tragic-comic weight.
Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz

Mystery and poetry of pure musical prose.
Steps by Jerzy Kosinski

Disturbing and profound meditation on sex, suffering, and the problem of being a person.
Hourglass by Danilo Kis

The trauma of of psychic wounds being passed over generations.
99 Stories of God by Joy Williams

The perfect form for her subject…the closest prose came to poetry.
Sean Singer is the author of Discography (Yale University Press) and Honey & Smoke (Eyewear publishing).