"A Fratricide" (German: Ein Brudermord) is a short story by Franz Kafka written between December 1916 and January 1917.
It is one of Kafka's most realistically descriptive and graphically violent stories, and tells the story of a murderer, Schmar, and his victim, Wese.
Although no clear motive for the murder is given anywhere in the story, it can be ascertained that the crime is a matter of jealous passion.
[citation needed] An important element of the story is the character of Pallas, a passive observer who witnesses the entire drama and whose intervention might have saved Wese's life.
Wese's wife, Julia, is also mentioned in the story: she is said to be waiting for him because he had been unusually late the night of the murder.