'Nada' Carmen Lafont

Set in post-Civil war Barcelona, the protagonist, Andrea arrives in the bleak city at midnight to fulfil her dream of studying litterature at the university following the deaths of both her parents.  She moves into the family home which she has not visited since childhood to live with her grandmother, to eccentric uncles, a strict aunt and the housekeeper.  This is far from a happy home, filled with tension, an unhappy marriage and unfulfilled dreams and ambitions and Andrea feels far from at home here which leads her to form friendships at university that at first help her to escape her unhappy home life but that later lead her deeper into the troubles with her uncles.  The novel is a well written translation of the original and explores some of the dark themes of civil war, filled with artistic characters that are almost too far-fetchedly troubled and set in a Barcelona that is bleak and brutalised, a far cry from the cosmopolitan metropolis we find there today.  At parts the story is gripping and it manages to portray the psychological mark left on the city by the civil war without exploring unnecessarily the political backdrop and today's readers can still identify with Andrea's struggle to maintain independence from her miserable family, often to the point of near starvation.  Lafont peppers the story with hints at a dark secret, mysteriously layering clues under the guise of seemingly (at least at first) innocent happenings that draw you into the story.  It did take a couple of chapters for me to get into the story, but the book was enjoyable and had a comforting end, I shall definitely be looking out for more books from this author in the future.