The Burrow (short story)

"The Burrow" (German: "Der Bau")[1] is an unfinished short story by Franz Kafka written six months before his death.

The story was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931) by Max Brod, Kafka's friend and literary executor.

Like "The Metamorphosis", "A Report to an Academy", "Investigations of a Dog" and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk", "The Burrow" presents an anthropomorphic animal.

Later in the story the creature becomes obsessed by a persistent noise and resolves to dedicate his energy to the identification and elimination of its source.

"I almost screw myself to the point of deciding to emigrate to distant parts and take up my old comfortless life again, which had no security whatever, but was one indiscriminate succession of perils, yet in consequence prevented one from perceiving and fearing particular perils, as I am constantly reminded by comparing my secure burrow with ordinary life.