Recent reading: Nada by Carmen Laforet

One of El País' re-issued classics of Spanish literature, Nada, first published in 1944, is at once a witty and a terrifying look at life in Barcelona in the wake of the Spanish civil war. It is also a pioneer "feminist" novel, where the women characters are every bit as complex (and sometimes just as crazy) as they men who try (with mixed results) to torment them. Finally, it is also a chilling but sympathetic portrait of a great, wounded city. There is an English translation by Glafyra Ennis: Nada. For a fuller note (in Spanish), see today's entry at Lecturas y lectores.