The latest addition to my website is Carmen Laforet‘s Nada (Nada; Andrea), a Spanish novel that not only has been translated into English but is in print in English in both the USA and UK. It was published in 1945 and is set immediately after the Spanish Civil War when things were grim, particularly in Barcelona, where the novel takes place. Andrea is an orphan who goes to Barcelona to study at university and stay at her grandparents’ house, a house she remembers from her childhood as being splendid. However, when she arrives, she finds that they have sold some of the building and the remaining parts are dilapidated, piled with furniture, which they gradually are selling off. Moreover, the remaining members of the family – her grandmother, her aunt, two uncles and the wife and young son of one of the uncles – are perpetually squabbling, often with fists. Andrea tries to fit in but finds it very difficult. This novel had considerable success in Spain and was translated into many languages, not least, in part, because it is seen as a metaphor for the situation of Spain after the Ciivil War.