Received from Friends of the Library book sale. It's on the list of 1001 books to read before you die.

hard cover (different cover than shown here)

A land surveyor referred to only as K struggles for unknown reasons to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle who govern the village. The novel is focused on man’s futile pursuit of an unattainable goal.
I read about one quarter of the book, but wasn't interested enough to complete it, particularly when I learned that the author had not finished writing the book, stopping in mid-paragraph.