Andrea llega a Barcelona a estudiar y se hospeda en casa de sus tios y su natural alegría y la ilusión por disfrutar de la gran ciuda...
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Apr 01, 2009
Julie
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To me, this novel represents literary perfection. The writer presents her characters without judgment, unrolls a plot that is simple in the outline but incredibly nuanced in the detail, a story that is so utterly of its era and location yet timeless in its themes.
This novel is set in Barcelona in the early 1940's, but as Mario Vargas Llosa notes in his introduction, references to the Spanish Civil War are very few and vague. Yet the physical, intellectual and cultural destruction of More...
This novel is set in Barcelona in the early 1940's, but as Mario Vargas Llosa notes in his introduction, references to the Spanish Civil War are very few and vague. Yet the physical, intellectual and cultural destruction of More...
Aug 16, 2011
Jay
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I first read Carmen Laforet’s Nada during my year in Spain in the early 1960s. Along with Ana Maria Matute, it was the first post war (=Spanish Civil War) literature I had added to my reading list that, up to that point, was weighted heavy on the Spanish classics. Over the years since that time, I have become increasingly aware of the vitality of Spanish literature during the presumed cultural depression of the Franco dictatorship (writers like Miguel Delibes, Camilo Jose Cela, Antonio Buero V
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Dec 27, 2010
Jeanette
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Carmen Laforet wrote with a quiet beauty. Not really poetic, just an understated elegance. Even the more dramatic or violent scenes have a quieter feeling than you'd expect. Quite impressive for a woman in her early twenties when she wrote this book.
The story is said to be somewhat autobiographical. Andrea, aged eighteen, goes to live with her grandmother, aunts, and uncles in Barcelona so she can attend the university. The family lives in greatly reduced circumstances after the S More...
The story is said to be somewhat autobiographical. Andrea, aged eighteen, goes to live with her grandmother, aunts, and uncles in Barcelona so she can attend the university. The family lives in greatly reduced circumstances after the S More...
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Dec 29, 2009
Ted
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This amazing novel about a young girl returning as an orphan to Barcelona after the Spanish Civil War is one of the classics of 20th century literature. LaForet, who was Catalan, was, of course, forbidden from writing it in anything but Spanish. She was 23 when she wrote it, and it won the first Premio Nadal in 1944, when it was published. This english translation includes a puzzled, admiring and amusing intro by Mario Vargas Llosa, who confesses he had never thought to read anything by a Spania
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Dec 20, 2008
Ashley
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This modern classic shows the dark side of a once well-to-do family in Barcelona after Spain's civil war. Told from the perspective of 18-year-old Andrea, an orphan staying with relatives, the reader nevertheless feels an eerie distance from the happenings--a distance that Andrea, too, seems to feel. There are many aspects to her character that seem inexplicable to the modern American reader but that are staples of maintaining appearances vis-a-vis class standing in the Spanish literary traditio
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Oct 15, 2011
Zadaver
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Gran libro, muy recomendable. Una muy buena historia contada con un gran estilo. Otra de esas novelas sobre el paso de la juventud a la edad adulta, pero en un entorno hostil y sofocante que, por momentos, traspasa el libro y genera en el lector la ansiedad que sufre la protagonista. Muy interesante el retrato de la Barcelona de la posguerra vista desde como afecta a las personas: como en parte la clase media se viene abajo (memorables las partes en las que Andrea pasa hambre, aunque en cierta m
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Feb 28, 2011
Elsje
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Nada is de roman waar de Spaanse schrijfster Carmen Laforet in 1944, op 23-jarige leeftijd, mee debuteerde. Ze won er de prestigieuze literaire Nadal-prijs mee. Daarna schreef ze nog een aantal succesvolle verhalenbundels en romans. In de jaren '60 van de vorige eeuw stopte ze met schrijven en trok zich terug uit het openbare leven. Volgens haar zoon omdat de bekendheid en de steeds terugkerende vragen in interviews haar verveelden. De schrijfster overleed in 2004, en onlangs verscheen de Nederl
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Feb 05, 2009
Nada is a novel of Spain__and of the difficult transition to adulthood. Critics agree that it is a remarkable achievement for so young a voice at the time and one of the best novels written during the Franco regime. Mario Vargas Llosa notes in his introduction that Nada never overtly refers to the Fascist victory, yet "politics weighs on the entire story like an ominous silence." Still, Andrea's grim experiences__from navigating the bizarre terrain of her relatives to brokering friends
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Oct 12, 2011
Gonçalo
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Um livro forte, escrito com uma pureza de linguagem e despojado de artifícios que nos forcem à comiseração, indulgência...
A escritora faz-me lembrar Graça Pina de Morais e em particular a sua magnífica obra "A Origem".
- esta mais esquecida entre nós e diga-se injustamente. Em "Nada" é a cidade de Barcelona e uma acção que decorre em apenas 1 ano e um pequeno apartamento, em "A Origem" é o Norte do nosso país, um solar e 3 gerações. Porquê essas reminiscê More...
A escritora faz-me lembrar Graça Pina de Morais e em particular a sua magnífica obra "A Origem".
- esta mais esquecida entre nós e diga-se injustamente. Em "Nada" é a cidade de Barcelona e uma acção que decorre em apenas 1 ano e um pequeno apartamento, em "A Origem" é o Norte do nosso país, um solar e 3 gerações. Porquê essas reminiscê More...
Aug 02, 2009
Sarah
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This isn't a genre that I am usually attracted to, but I find I am much more open to trying books I wouldn't have otherwise due to the sheer volume of audiobooks I have been going through lately. Regardless, I thought the writing style was excellent, with an almost prose-like feel to it. Pretty imoressive given that this is a translation. It remided me a bit of The Bell Jar, in that there isn't much going on in regard to actual events and actions, but there is a breadth of things going on at an
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Jan 01, 2012
Emily
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While not a favorite for me, this is an amazing work, written by Laforet at the early age of 23 and heralded as a treasure of Spanish fiction and one of the great works of twentieth century literature. In Nada, Laforet painfully paints early 1940s Spain using the metaphor of a once wealthy family crumbling into poverty, filth, and immorality. It was interesting for me to read another work depicting Spain after the Civil War having recently read The Time In Between.
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Nov 16, 2010
Stephanie
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Small town girl Andrea comes to live with her relatives in 1940s Barcelona in order to study at the university. During the year that follows, the allure of life in the exciting city quickly degenerates as Andrea's demanding and volatile family suffocates her spirit.
Andrea's relatives are the probably one of the most dysfunctional I've ever come across in literature . Laforet runs away with the stereotype of explosive Spanish temperament with enraged uncles trying to kill each other More...
Andrea's relatives are the probably one of the most dysfunctional I've ever come across in literature . Laforet runs away with the stereotype of explosive Spanish temperament with enraged uncles trying to kill each other More...
Jan 29, 2012
Kerry
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Okay, first of all, the narrator was pretty terrible. She over-enunciated every word, which (in addition to making her sound like as though English was not her first language -- which in itself isn't terrible, but I'd prefer an interesting (Spanish) accent) introduced all kinds of pauses where I don't think there should have been.
Secondly, I think the translation may have been poor -- but how can you tell something like, that right? But so much of the book is existential rambling, More...
Secondly, I think the translation may have been poor -- but how can you tell something like, that right? But so much of the book is existential rambling, More...
Oct 15, 2011
Robin
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This book is about an extremely disfunctional family in Barcelona, Spain before WWII and after the Spanish Civil War. The family members did unpleasant things to each other, one after the other. I couldn't see the point of this, or where the book was going, so I gave up after about 60 pages. This book has been credited as being one of the best books of the 20th century. Maybe I would have seen the value if I'd read further, but it wasn't worth it to me.
Apr 21, 2011
Ernie
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I wish I understood better written spanish so I could read the original and look for the line between Laforet's work and Edith Grossman's translation. As far as I can tell from the end result, I endorse both. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would since I only wanted it as background research on Barcelona.
It was like a dairy queen blizzard with tasty chunks of Sylvia Plath, George Orwell, maybe Donna Tartt or Charles Dickens or Fitzgerald mixed in.
It was like a dairy queen blizzard with tasty chunks of Sylvia Plath, George Orwell, maybe Donna Tartt or Charles Dickens or Fitzgerald mixed in.
Feb 03, 2012
Julia
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Em Nada, a jovem Andrea chega à Barcelona para estudar Letras, logo após o fim da Guerra Civil. Já foi notado que o livro não possui muitas referências à Guerra, mas a casa de sua família é marcada pelas suas conseqüências. Os membros de sua família são pessoas famintas, violentas, meio enlouquecidas, sujas, pessoas que despertam um misto de fascinação e repulsa. A Barcelona que ela conhece com eles tem as mesmas características, e é uma cidade oprimente, a Barcelona em que senhoritas não podem
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Nov 25, 2008
Gina
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Carmen Laforet was amazingly bold especially at such a young age to write this beautiful novel. It is beautiful in the sense that it reflects all the psychological tension and struggle of survival of post-war Spain from a young girl's perspective as she describes the harsh reality, emptiness, and misery of not only her family, but of the plunge of society due to the social and political climate.
Nov 14, 2009
Lauren
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This book was not a bad book at all. Laforet is listed as one of the first Spanish, feminist writer's out there and has created an interesting book about a girl who is trying to grow up in the wreckage of the Civil War. You go through the tribulations of her life and experience a piece of loss with her (Andrea). It's a sad book, and had it been the first of it's kind that I had ever read, I probably would have given it one more star.
Dec 18, 2011
Andrea
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My name is Andrea, I'm 17 and I live in Barcelona; but also, reading this book made me connect with the main character, which has nearly all those things in common with me. I found myself agreeing with her thoughts and her somewhat depressive vision of life, as well as her timid hopes and wishes, which i share while coming of age, as well. I believe this book to be very well-written and i'd recommend it to anyone my age. Perhaps, if I was to say something negative about it, I do wish that it wou
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Feb 22, 2011
Susan_T.
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A "detailed autopsy of a girl imprisoned in a hungry, half-crazed family on Calle de Aribau," Mario Vargas Llosa writes in the introduction to the English translation of this Spanish classic. Set in Barcelona just after the Spanish Civil War, the novel is both lyrical (and occasionally overwritten) and harrowing.
Jan 29, 2012
Blue
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Laforet is a master of language and character. The subject matter is nothing extraordinary, no more than daily lives and family melodramas, but the narration through Andrea's voice, with its doubts and rash judgments and young delusions and stomach grumblings, gives everything a fresh edge.
And if you get a sense this book, which is loosely based on Laforet's own life when she was a student, is hiding something in its strangely homoerotic narration from time to time, distant rumors f More...
And if you get a sense this book, which is loosely based on Laforet's own life when she was a student, is hiding something in its strangely homoerotic narration from time to time, distant rumors f More...
Oct 03, 2008
Joyce
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I read about this book in a book review and hunted it down. It is truly fabulous. I agree with other reviewers that it is marvelously written.
It has been described as depressing and sad, and normally I shy away from books like that. However, I did not find this book to be depressing. Sad yes, but not in the way that is hopeless or for a sadness without purpose.
I also enjoyed this book because I love Barcelona and I could envision the streets. A little this reminded m More...
It has been described as depressing and sad, and normally I shy away from books like that. However, I did not find this book to be depressing. Sad yes, but not in the way that is hopeless or for a sadness without purpose.
I also enjoyed this book because I love Barcelona and I could envision the streets. A little this reminded m More...
Oct 23, 2011
Nathan
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A rich, beautifully written novel (by a 23-year-old at publication) about the different, chaotic strands of life, how whole phases of our life are difficult to define and don't necessarily make sense.
May 15, 2010
Darshan Elena
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What a brilliant little novel. It documents a young woman's experience of poverty, depression, and sexism at the onset of the Spanish Civil War. Laforet's prose is masterful, poetic and disturbing.
Jan 11, 2010
Margy
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I read this in grad school, in Spanish, 24 years ago, but images and situations from this Gothic novel still stay with me. I don't know if there is a decent English translation in existence.
May 23, 2011
Debbie
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The Muensters or the Addams Family set in Barcelona. Poor Andrea, an orphan, winds up living with her Grandma,etc., in the old homestead. A gothic horror story , but with beautiful writing and twists added to keep it from cliche, ensues.
Mar 28, 2011
Laura
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Picked this up on a whim; it was a staff selection at the down town library. It was dark and sparse and I felt like I was watching an old black and white movie - in a good way.
Mar 23, 2009
Abby
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The story of a disconnected girl who goes to live with her extremely violent and dismal extended family in Barcelona, and continues throughout the narrative to be depressed, starving and weepy, Nada was Not-a fun reading experience!
Jul 24, 2011
Sharon
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not sure what I expected but didn't really get into this book. I tried to put myself in the time/place that it was written but just couldn't warm up to it.
