 Carmen Laforet’s 100th Birthday

 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 (Nothing) 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 (1936–1939). 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Prize, an award for unpublished authors that is today regarded as one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, Lafore