Product Description

Andrea, an impoverished eighteen-year-old girl travels to Barcelona to pursue her ambition of studying literature at the university. She arrives at night, by train, in a city that immediately imposes its bleak, post-Civil War atmosphere on her impressionable mind. She makes her way to the home of relatives, a house she has not visited since her childhood, and before long we realise that she has entered a very strange household indeed. Tension between her grandmother, her two eccentric uncles, an aunt, and the housekeeper is present from the moment of her arrival and it grows in claustrophobic intensity as this unforgettable story develops. Nada describes a young woman's emergence from a life of cloying despair into the fresh new dawn of post-war enlightenment and promise. The spirit of war-torn, brutalised Barcelona - very different from the confident, prosperous Catalan capital we know today - hovers over this beautifully written and minutely observed novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22401 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: Spanish
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

The Guardian
`Laforet's writing is astonishingly accomplished: taut and impassioned'

Gaurdian
`Laforet's writing is astonishingly accomplished: taut and impassioned',

The Observer
`a novel of real beauty, alive with the ferocity of a young girl's longing for consolation'

Customer Reviews

A Classic piece of literature, by a gifted Spanish writer
'Nada' is a story about a university student called Andrea who has moved to Barcelona to study. She moves in with her Aunt Angustias and there the trouble begins. She starts to learn about the history of her family especially with regards to Ramon and Juan's behaviour towards Gloria. This novel was gripping and factual, it gave a real insight as to the atmosphere in Spain during the civil war. A must read novel, i can well appreciate how it won the 'premio nadal' in 1944.