The Hive

…second novel, La colmena (1951; The Hive), with its fragmented chronology and large cast of characters, is an innovative and perceptive story of postwar Madrid. It solidified Cela’s critical and popular reputation. Another of his better-known avant-garde novels, San Camilo, 1936 (1969), is one continuous stream of consciousness. His later…

…heights in La colmena (1951; The Hive), portraying divided Madrid society during the harsh winter of 1941–42. By his death, in 2002, Cela—who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989—had published by his own count more than 100 books, including a dozen novels, numerous story collections, travel books, critical…