The present volume intentionally focuses on lesser-known novelists whose writings provide testimony of the demeaning status of women in the post-war period, thus the reason for the inclusion of acclaimed novelist Carmen Laforet (1921–2004) should be clarified. The importance of Laforet's first novel Nada (1945, Nothing) cannot be overstated. Now approaching its one-hundredth edition, it is the most popular and successful novel written by a Spanish woman novelist in the twentieth century. Indeed, as Gustavo Pérez-Firmat acknowledges, its acclaim is not defined by gender boundaries: ‘Few modern Spanish novels have had as much critical and popular success as Nada. …’ It was Laforet's novel that set the trend for a succession of neorealist testimonial novels by women authors, novels that have made it possible for readers to engage directly with the routine lives of women in the Franco years, in particular with the repressive aspects and the inner turbulence experienced by so many women. Fernando Álvarez Palacios believes that the testimonial importance of Nada cannot be overstated: ‘Nada es una de las obras más significativas de aquellos años, y como documento histórico, pieza de indudable valor’ (Nada is one of the most important works of those years, and as a historical document, it is of unquestionable value). Nonetheless, it is worth noting that there were a few novels, published prior to Laforet's novel, which drew attention to degrading life experiences and exposed some unspoken aspects of women's lives in postwar Spain, including Villarta's Muchachas que trabajan (Working Girls) and March's Nido de vencejos (Nest of Swallows), both of which were published a year earlier in 1944.