The Stoker

"The Stoker"
Short story by Franz Kafka
Original titleDer Heizer
LanguageGerman
Publication
Published inAmerika (1927)
Publication date1913

"The Stoker" (original German: "Der Heizer") is a short story by Franz Kafka. Kafka wrote it as the first chapter of an uncompleted novel that Max Brod titled and published as Amerika and that has subsequently been translated as The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika) and as Amerika: The Missing Person. Kafka abandoned the novel in 1913 and published "The Stoker" alone as a pamphlet later that year. Since his death, it has usually been published as the opening chapter of Amerika.