Building a world from scratch is an incredibly tenuous thing to do. Trying to imagine how every character ties in together, everything leading to the conclusion, and describing that in a simultaneously horrifying and impressive display of treachery, of anxiety, all within procedures is an incredibly tenuous task. One that Kafka masters.
Kafka's books are often centered around how one views the world turning in on itself, collapsing around them, until the tragedy strikes the main character, or until death ensues. The world engulfsthe protagonist in his entirety, his world starts to revolve around one single event that consumes him, until there is nothing left. The trial is exactly like that.
From the beginning, the author builds an environnement hostile to the reader, only protected by the main character's stoicism and pragmatism. But one guesses what anxiety lies under the stillness of his expression and the calm under which he hides. The greatness of the matter at hand is only understood to a surface level, a surface scratched and yet maintained by the calm of everything. But things start to creep, one feels the very pressure of the trial inching ever closer, slowly closing into the main character. As wierd events happen, as relationships falls, the Leviathan's head shows its true colors.
Apart from the story, making this book a classic, even within Kafka's bibliography (The Trial is much more interesting than the Metamorphosis imo), the writing and style is absolutely fantastic. I read a French translation most recently, but the English translations are also absolutely fantastic, a feat ony accomplished by sublime writing. Without being a thriller, the book catches you, reels you in ever closer up until the end.
Everything in this book shows the true mastery of anxiety, worldbuilding, description in litterature. I heavily reccomend it : it has not aged a day. 8.9/10 , great read.