Nada

Nada (nothing in English) was Laforet’s first novel. It was originally published in 1945, when its author was 23, and it created a sensation in Barcelona. Now, more than 60 years later, the book’s odd charm is undiminished.

It recounts, in first-person prose, the experiences of Andrea, an 18-year-old orphan from the provinces who arrives in Barcelona to stay with her dead mother’s relatives while she attends university.