The Metamorphosis is a story written by Franz Kafka, in 1912, about a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man.

It was first published in 1915. The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction.

This story moves so seamlessly between the fantastic and the ordinary, the funny and the horrifying, the global and the personal, it’s to remind us all to embrace our inner vermin—both our own sanity and the very survival of human civilization may depend on it.