Nada

Eighteen-year old orphan Andrea moves to battle-scarred Barcelona to take up a scholarship at the university. But staying with relatives in their crumbling apartment, her dreams of independence are dashed among the eccentric collection of misfits who surround her, not least her uncle Roman. As Andrea's university friend, the affluent, elegant Ena, enters into a strange relationship with Roman, Andrea can't help but wonder what future lies ahead for her in such a bizarre and disturbing world.

Translated by Edith Grossman

'One of the great classics of contemporary European literature' Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Review: One of the great classics of contemporary European literature. -- Carlos Ruiz Zafon * author of The Shadow of the Wind *
... a story that Carmen Laforet narrates in prose both exalted and icy, in which what is unspoken is more important than what is said, keeping the reader of the novel submerged in indescribable anguish from beginning to end -- Mario Vargas Llosa
Read today, Nada surprises us with its modernity. By its absolute lack of sentimentality, in spite of the atrocities that it relates. By its exact style, clean, sharp as a crystal, and at the same time full of expressive force and poetic originality. * El Mundo *
A masterly, original novel, minutely and faithfully observed, with psychological aspects that make you think and feel -- Azorin
One of the best novels of the twentieth century. -- Miguel Delibes * author of The Heretic *