This author wrote about a figure whose work the narrator compares to attracting a crowd by cracking nuts. In one of this author's stories, the dying emperor sends a messenger 
This author wrote about a figure whose work the narrator compares to attracting a crowd by cracking nuts. In one of this author's stories, the dying emperor sends a messenger to you, his subject, who is slowed by throngs of people at the emperor's bedside. He wrote of a woman who believes she possesses great musical abilities that bring comfort to her people, the "mouse folk." In another story, a gatekeeper warns a visitor from the country of the even more fearsome gatekeepers beyond, and at the end of the visitor's life tells him the gate was built only for him and will now be closed. This author of "Josephine the Singer" embedded that story, "Before the Law," in his novel about Josef K. For 10 points, name this author of The Trial.
This author wrote about a figure whose work the narrator compares to attracting a crowd by cracking nuts.
Franz Kafka