The fortress

There is also in the main square a church, part of it surrounded by an old cemetery, which in turn is enclosed by a high wall, which only a few boys could climb, and even they failed. Curiosity was not what drove them to do so, for the cemetery no longer held secrets for them. They had entered it several times before through its iron gate, but they sought to conquer it from above the high and smooth wall. One day before noon - the silent and empty square was overflowing with sunlight - K succeeded in a way that was astonishing, in a place where he had failed several times before, in climbing from the first attempt and with a small flag in his teeth. The pieces of stones were still falling beneath him when he ascended the wall, planted the flag in a crack, and the wind spread the cloth. He looked down and around him, as well as from above his shoulder to the horizon, then to the crosses embedded in the ground; no one now here was bigger than him. In the familiar novel, one remains within the scope of the story, and does not demand an explanation after finishing reading it. And a writer like Kafka comes along, writing about simple matters in truth, about landowners, for example, and yet all this is characterized by an enchanting beauty that captivates the reader in some way, because it has a significant core in a special manner. Alfred Doblin