Her writing is direct and fresh, in short, clear sentences. Into the climate of bombast that pervaded her impoverished and frightened country after the civil war, Laforet introduced a realistic eye and existential spirit. The book is cited alongside Camilo José Cela's The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942) as a renovator of literature in Spain. In 1944, the manuscript of Nada won Laforet the very first Nadal prize, at the age of only 23 its publication was part of the award. It has never been out of print, and, even today, sells several thousand copies a year. With its laconic, Sartrian title, the book caused a sensation with its portrayal of a miserable, sordid Barcelona immediately after the civil war. The Spanish writer Carmen Laforet, who has died aged 82, after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for more than a decade, will be remembered as the author of Nada (Nothing, 1945), one of her country's greatest and most famous modern novels.
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