Barcelona, España, 1921 - Madrid, España , 2004

Carmen Laforet spent her childhood and teenage years in Gran Canaria. She returned to Barcelona at the age of 18 to take a humanities degree that she left unfinished. She then moved to Madrid, where she wrote her debut novel, Nada, when she was just 22 years old. It won her the Premio Nadal literary prize in its first year and established her as the great revelation of Spanish post-war literature, making her a cult author for several generations. During the 1950s and 1960s, Laforet was hugely productive, also collaborating regularly with the journal Destino and the newspaper ABC. In 1955 she won the Spanish National Literature Prize for her novel La mujer nueva. As of the 1970s, she gradually distanced herself from the literary world and her career ended in absolute silence.

  • "Carmen Laforet is a hugely talented writer, and the first in the history of the Spanish language to give us a complete and open portrait of the female soul from within." Ramón J. Sénder 
  • "Carmen Laforet, the author of Nada, was a young girl of just 23 years old who nobody had heard of, who appeared out of nowhere with a story whose conflicts were in stark contrast to the romantic novels usually read and cultivated by women." Carmen Martín Gaite 

Bibliography

The exchanged correspondence between the novelist Carmen Laforet and the cultural critic Emilio Sanz de Soto confirms that Laforet, despite her public reticence, never abandoned her role as a writer until the end, and retrieves part of Sanz de Soto's memory fabric, so lacking in printed records. Freedom was the life goal of both, and the difficulty of finding it in the Spain of their time, the central argument of their respective biographies. 

Read more

Novel

In a time of hardship and poverty, the protagonist—a bohemian painter searching for meaning in his life—is swept up by old romantic feelings and decides to share his life with an eccentric and frivolous family, along with a young girl who was originally meant to accompany him for only a two-day journey but ultimately becomes another member of this unusual family setup.

Around the Corner, written in the 1970s, is more than the mere discovery of an unpublished work by one of the most prominent writers of the second half of the 20th century; it is a notable contribution to Spanish literature and a mature narrative gem that crowns the brief but brilliant work of the author of Nada and La insolación.

A novel that dives deep into the sea of adolescence, by the author of Nada.

La insolación is a story of friendship and fascination. Over the summers of his fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth years, Martín Soto must confront his own burgeoning sensitivity, amidst the intense heat of adolescence. In communion with nature, under the blinding sunlight and the hazy white heat, the boundaries of reality blur and waver. His encounters with the unique characters in the story—especially the eccentric Corsi family, free-spirited and unlike the conservative society around them—bring unexpected emotions and adventures into his life. Naively, Martín doesn’t realize that an explosive situation is unfolding around him. His awakening will be painful. He is no longer a child. As he faces solitude, a new horizon opens.

A pioneering novel of feminist literature. 

During the first decades of the Franco regime, women’s lives were marked out for them and only marriage could free them from parental authority, the moment when their husbands took control. This is the case of Paulina until she decides to take full charge of her own life and emancipate herself from all male dependency. At the age of 30, she decides to separate from her husband, break up with her lover and make a fresh start in Madrid, with a child under her wing. Only thanks to her resolute spirituality, which finds echoes in the asceticism of the mystics, does Paulina achieve the liberation that enables her to become “a new woman”, flouting the times she is forced to live in.

At the age of 23 Carmen Laforet dazzled the critics and public with Nada, now considered a universal classic. A decade later she wrote The New Woman, a moving novel that was not understood at the time owing to its pioneering portrait of feminism, nor later with the arrival of democracy because of its religious content. Ahead of its times, The New Woman describes the life of a woman who longs for freedom in a world where, historically and socially, she is flatly denied it.

“Carmen Laforet is a hugely talented writer, and the first in the history of the Spanish language to give us a complete and open portrait of the female soul from within.” Ramón J. Sénder 

“Once again Laforet is ahead of her generation.” Ismael Rolón

Carmen Laforet's second novel, published in 1952, is set on the island of Gran Canaria and tells the story of young Marta Camino, her dreams, and her relationships, all against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. Two powerful forces drive the narrative: the beautifully rendered landscape of Gran Canaria and the complex web of human passions and miseries, the "demons." At the same time, nostalgia for Madrid, brought to the island by mainlanders, gradually seeps into the story until it is embodied in Marta herself. Driven by her desire to escape family oppression, she begins to feel the pull of that unknown land—the call of the big city.

One of the most important literary works of post-Civil War Spain, Nada is the semiautobiographical story of a young woman who leaves her small town to attend university in war-ravaged Barcelona. 

«Una sorta di #metoo ante litteram, una delle prime voci a dire basta alla violenza di genere.» Alberto Manguel, Lettura - Corriere della Sera, 7 octubre 2018

 “Laforet vividly conveys the strangeness of Barcelona in the 1940s, a city that has survived civil war only to find itself muted by Franco’s dictatorship…The spirit of sly resistance that Laforet’s novel expresses, its heroine’s determination to escape provincial poverty and to immerse herself in ‘lights, noises, the entire tide of life,’ has lost none of its power of persuasion.”  The New York Times Book Review

“That this complex, mature and wise novel was written by someone in her early 20s is extraordinary….But after six decades, this first novel has lost none of its power and originality, and we are fortunate to have it in this fine translation.” The Washington Post, chosen as a Washington Post Best Book of the Year

Nada does indeeed recall Sartre and Camus, but it is fresher and more vibrant than either, and with its call to intuition and feelings rather than intellect, it cuts deeper….[A] mesmerizing new translation….a beautiful evocation of the tidal wave of late adolescent feeling….[Laforet] wrote Nada when she was only 23, yet the book resonates with frightening maturity, sadness and depth…a work of genius.” Los Angeles Times

“A brilliantly subtle book whose power lies in what goes unsaid… Nada is a skillfully written, multifaceted novel, and its eerie relevance to today’s political climate and social attitudes is difficult to ignore.” The San Francisco Chronicle

“Laforet’s moody and sepulchral debut novel…has been given new life by acclaimed translator Grossman….Andrea’s narration is gorgeously expressive, rippling with emotion and meaning…fans of European lit will welcome this Spanish Gothic to the States with open arms and a half-exasperated, “What took you so long?” Publisher’s Weekly (starred review) 

“Carmen Laforet finds new life with this beautiful translation…dazzling in its approach…Laforet’s talent in addressing complex familial and social issues us nothing short of amazing…her wiser-than-thou nature and clever handling of bitter dialogue [are] the mark of a truly gifted writer…..a timeless work of art.” The Fredericksburg Free Lance Star 

“Nada is neither moralist, nor prolix, unlike most other Spanish literature of the time and before. This is a modern voice, philosophically and stylistically, talking to us in freedom from the darkest hours of the victory of fascism….remarkably sophisticated.” The Independent

“[A] remarkable achievement…Nada’s work is sui generis, a gothic horror story which deserves the widest possible readership.” The Sunday Herald

Short stories and novellas

Con prólogo de Carme Riera, ofrece una recopilación de todos los cuentos de Carmen Laforet e incluye sus primeros textos inéditos.

 

 

Los primeros textos de Carmen Laforet, nunca antes publicados, vibran en su cándida osadía con toda la pureza, el ansia de libertad y el don poético que conformarán su obra futura.

Este volumen consta de tres partes: la primera incluye siete cuentos que podría haber escrito Andrea, la protagonista de Nada; en la segunda nos reencontramos con los diez cuentos clásicos que, aunque nunca faltan en las antologías del género, no habían vuelto a reunirse desde hacía treinta años, y en la tercera, por último, se recuperan ocho cuentos más, que fueron su última contribución al género, abandonado a partir de 1955.

Four short novels by Carmen Laforet reflecting postwar Spain

In The Call, Mercedes leaves her marital home in pursuit of her dreams, a journey that will ultimately lead her back to herself. An Engagement subverts the romance novel with Alicia, the submissive secretary in love with her boss… up to a point. In The Last Summer and The Piano, the generosity of Doña Pepita and the youthful joy of Rosa shed a different light on the harsh, torn landscape of postwar Spain, where hardship spared no one.

Four female characters and four unique narratives all pulse with a shared undertone of human connection and a rebellious vitality that conveys a striking sense of reality to the reader.

Written with a masterful, evocative style, Laforet’s sensitivity in these stories reaches an unparalleled refinement. For this reason and their themes, critics have seen them as a prelude to her next book, The New Woman.

Biography / Memoirs

Carmen Laforet, her life out of the spotlight

Edition and text by Agustín Cerezales Laforet

This moving biography of Carmen Laforet, prepared by her son Agustín Cerezales, coincides with the centenary of the birth of one of the most important and also most enigmatic writers of Spanish literature. Its pages explore Laforet’s literary world and little-known aspects of her personal life, through fragments of her work, manuscripts, press cuttings, unpublished photographs, correspondence and remembered anecdotes that provide a more intimate and realistic, warmer portrait of the author. An inescapable testimony offering an insight into all the secrets of a writer who was ahead of her time.  

Journalistic Work

The articles collected in this book, originally published between 1948 and 1953 in the Puntos de vista de una mujer (A Woman's Points of View) column of Destino magazine, reveal Carmen Laforet's writing as a mirror reflecting the everyday life of her time—an era when women sought to be seen and heard beyond the confines of their own rooms. Yet, Laforet did more than portray the concerns and desires of women in a nation weighed down by repression. With an intimate and courageous voice, determined to be true to herself, she carved out a shared space of freedom and solidarity.

In these pieces, Carmen Laforet masterfully achieves one of writing’s great feats: transforming the everyday into something extraordinary, imbuing the mundane with new meaning. Through these works, we rediscover a different facet of an author who broke barriers in the 1940s, while her journalistic gaze proves essential to completing the portrait of this remarkable figure.

Books for children and young readers

En uno de sus viajes a Estados Unidos, Carmen Laforet conoció a los Young, matrimonio de hispanistas, padres de un niño llamado Timoteo. La escritora sintió el impulso de regalarle por escrito "El medio pollito", un cuento de la tradición oral castellana que conocía desde niña y que a menudo había contado a sus hijos. Cálamo publica por primera vez esta obra ilustrada por el pintor Manuel Cerezales Laforet, hijo de una de las narradoras más singulares de las letras hispanas contemporáneas. En un apéndice, donde se reproduce el manuscrito original de Laforet, Roberta Johnson relata la historia del citado manuscrito y analiza y contrasta las diferentes versiones que existen de este cuento.

Letters

The exchanged correspondence between the novelist Carmen Laforet and the cultural critic Emilio Sanz de Soto confirms that Laforet, despite her public reticence, never abandoned her role as a writer until the end, and retrieves part of Sanz de Soto's memory fabric, so lacking in printed records. Freedom was the life goal of both, and the difficulty of finding it in the Spain of their time, the central argument of their respective biographies. They detested being directed and directing others, and they enjoyed associating with free people. They were two beings endowed with storytelling. They believed in the aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, the brave. Everything human seemed understandable to them, without labels, without the reducing power of identity essentialisms. This correspondence is also the story of "a loving friendship," a concept and experience difficult to absorb in Spanish culture, but which was constantly on the lips and in the life of Emilio Sanz de Soto and Carmen Laforet. The reading of these letters is presided over by a pressing need for dialogue that refers us to Virginia Woolf's beautiful essay, "The Humane Art," in which she conceives the epistolary genre as the most humane art, rooted in "love for friends." These unpublished letters cover the longest span of all of Carmen Laforet's correspondence (from December 1958 to August 1987) and contribute to a better understanding of the author of "Nada" and the "living literary memories" of an exceptional witness of Spanish culture in the mid-century: Emilio Sanz de Soto.

En De corazón y alma (1947-1952) hallamos un testimonio único e inédito hasta la fecha: la correspondencia de dos escritoras de excepción, dos mujeres entregándose hasta el fondo de su alma;  dos pioneras, cada una en su generación, defensoras de la libertad de la mujer para ser y sentir con cada una de sus palabras.  Estamos ante un libro revelador como pocos, trenzado de cartas que rebosan hondura y verdad por sus cuatro costados, y que nos llevan de la duda a la certeza, de la alegría a la tristeza y de la literatura a la vida.

Cristina Cerezales y Silvia Cerezales, hijas de Carmen Laforet y escritoras, narran en sendos prólogos el valor extraordinario que para su madre, lectora admirada de Celia, tuvieron estas cartas que cruzó con la periodista y escritora Encarnación Aragoneses desde 1947, año de Nada y el Nadal, hasta la muerte de Elena Fortún en 1952.

Prologa también el volumen Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles, catedrática de Estudios Hispánicos y de Género en la Universidad de Exeter (Gran Bretaña).

Con sensibilidad y elegancia, Carmen Laforet nos ilumina acerca de una de las grandes incógnitas de la literatura española de la posguerra, su mutismo literario y su necesidad de intimidad, que cristaliza en un distanciamiento paulatino de la vida pública y social. Por su parte, Ramón J. Sender desmitifica la vida del exilio y nos desvela, sin tapujos y con agudeza, sus sentimientos hacia su país natal: desde Franco hasta el estalinismo pasando por sus protagonistas literarios, como Alberti o Camilo José Cela.

Travel

1965. Una novelista emprende un viaje a Estados Unidos con el compromiso previo de redactar luego una serie de crónicas para una revista. Está ya imaginando cómo será su aventura, y está ya buscando el enfoque que podría darle; en cierto modo, asistimos a un entrenamiento, a un proceso en el que va calentando los motores de la escritura. Durante el viaje, la escritora va tomando notas en un cuaderno con tapas de color verde donde anota los preliminares, la travesía del viaje, las escalas en Puerto Rico y Veracruz, y los primeros días en tierra firme. 

Las páginas de este cuaderno sobre las experiencias de Carmen Laforet en el barco, salpimentadas por encuentros con pasajeros y, después, en tierra, con profesores, con amigos, cuyas historias personales anota, nos recuerdan sus extraordinarias dotes de narradora y su manera especial de entrelazar historias humanas con descripciones precisas de ambientes y locales. 

El variado y gigantesco escenario de los Estados Unidos, sus ciudades, sus paisajes y sus gentes desfilan por las páginas de esta narración que recoge las impresiones recibidas por Carmen Laforet en su primer viaje a Norteamérica

“De las notas tomadas en trenes y habitaciones de hotel surgió este libro dice la novelista-. De la primera impresión fresca y viva con paisajes y personas y ambientes desconocidos. Se ha procurado en estas páginas hacer un relato objetivo de unas aventuras y unos encuentros".

   

Anthology / Selection

Se recopilan sus novelas cortas escritas entre 1952 y 1954, después del gran éxito de su primera novela. Incluye El piano, La llamada, El viaje divertido, La niña, Los emplazados, El último verano y Un noviazgo. La posguerra circunscribe y es circunstancia de todos los personajes, incluida la propia narradora.

Incluyen: Nada, La muerta, La isla y los demonios, Llamada, La mujer nueva.

Other genres

Novela gráfica basada en la obra de Carmen Laforet.

 

Pocos años después de la guerra civil española, Andrea llega a Barcelona para estudiar Letras en la Universidad. Durante su estancia en la maravillosa ciudad condal se hospedará en casa de sus familiares, pero la expectación que siente en esos momentos mágicos iniciales se va a borrar de golpe al abrirse la puerta del piso. A partir de ese momento todo le va a parecer una pesadilla. El ambiente familiar será cada vez más insoportable y el dolor de la soledad de la protagonista va unido a su figura, sombra apenas reflejada en algún espejo. 

 

Ilustraciones de Claudio Stassi.

Prizes

  • 1944 - Premio Nadal for Nada
  • 1949 - Premio Fastenrath for Nada
  • 1955 - Premio Menorca de Novela for La mujer nueva
  • 1956 - Premio Nacional de Literatura for La mujer nueva