"An Original Manuscript Can Only Be in One Place at One Time"
The NYTimes magazine explores a strange, depressing, riveting story - one in which the work of a masterful 20th Century author, an act of love/betrayal by his surprising best friend, the rantings of a reclusive 70-something cat enthusiast, and a bank vault in Israel all intertwine in a maze worthy of the writer's name.

While about two-thirds of the Kafka estate eventually found its way to Oxford’s Bodleian Library, the remainder — believed to comprise drawings, travel diaries, letters and drafts — stayed in Brod’s possession until his death in Israel in 1968, when it passed to his secretary and presumed lover, Esther Hoffe. After Hoffe’s death in late 2007, at age 101, the National Library of Israel challenged the legality of her will, which bequeaths the materials to her two septuagenarian daughters, Eva Hoffe and Ruth Wiesler. The library is claiming a right to the papers under the terms of Brod’s will. The case has dragged on for more than two years. If the court finds in the sisters’ favor, they will be free to follow Eva’s stated plan to sell some or all of the papers to the German Literature Archive in Marbach. They will also be free to keep whatever they don’t sell in their multiple Swiss and Israeli bank vaults and in the Tel Aviv apartment that Eva shares with an untold number of cats.
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Etgar Keret, a best-selling Israeli short-story writer who considers Kafka to be his greatest influence, ...(says) Kafka...might be O.K. with it: “The next best thing to having your stuff burned, if you’re ambivalent, is giving it to some guy who gives it to some lady who gives it to her daughters who keep it in an apartment full of cats, right?”