Carmen Laforet’s 100th Birthday

Google Dooles 15.09.2021 13:15  Date: September 6, 2021 Today’s Doodle celebrates the centennial birthday of Spanish writer Carmen Laforet, best known for her no-frills, realist prose. Carmen Laforet Díaz was born on this day in 1921 in Barcelona, Spain. Her 1945 novel Nada is still widely considered one of Spain’s most significant contemporary novels. She spent her early years in the Canary Islands—a safe haven from the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War . At 18, she returned with her family to Barcelona to study philosophy before moving to Madrid where she found a city scrambling to recover from domestic unrest. It was in this tumultuous climate that Laforet wrote the manuscript for Nada--the story of an 18-year-old orphan’s struggle in post-war Barcelona. The story's candid existentialist narration portrayed the era’s harsh realities from a fresh perspective with a simple writing style, contrasting the convoluted prose that characterized many Spanish works at the time. Laforet’s innovative novel won her the first Nadal Prize, an award for unpublished authors that is today regarded as one of Spanish literature’s most prestigious honors. In addition to celebrating Laforet’s work, the prize included the publication of Nada, which immediately became a national sensation. Laforet’s frank, realist prose reinvigorated the literary arts of a war-torn country while inspiring a new generation of women novelists. Along with several collections of short stories, a novella and travel books, Laforet published three additional novels into the late 1960s. Nada has never gone out of print, retaining its place in the nation's literary life. Happy Birthday, Carmen Laforet! Location: Tags: , , , ,