The Hive: A Novel

About this book

In this extraordinary novel of life in Madrid after the Spanish Civil War Camilo Jose Cela conveys with startling immediacy not only the brutality but also the vitality of life in the city. His styleeconomical but vividcarries the reader through a series of vignettes following Celas many characters through the streets and tenements and brothels and above all the cafs of the great beehivela colmenaof Madrid. Both a social document of its time and place and a moving tale of human sufferingand human triumph--under a totalitarian regime The Hive is a brilliant and original work (Gerald Brenan The New York Times Book Review).