# The best Spanish novels of the 20th century

Novels by Spanish authors published between 1900 and 2000 that appear on El Mundo's list of the 100 best 20th-century novels in Spanish (critics and 20,000 readers) and in later canons.

- 725 votes · 22 items
- Aug 10, 2023 · Mercedes Álvarez Diez
- https://even.best/en/l/286/the-best-spanish-novels-of-the-20th-century

## Top 20

1. **The Family of Pascual Duarte** (60 · ▲64 ▼4) — Camilo José Cela, 1942. The memoirs of a man condemned to death; it launched 'tremendismo'.
2. **Nada** (57 · ▲75 ▼18) — Carmen Laforet, 1945. Andrea arrives in post-war Barcelona; the first Nadal Prize, written at 23.
3. **The Hive** (54 · ▲56 ▼2) — Camilo José Cela, 1951. More than 300 characters in 1943 Madrid; first published in Buenos Aires because of censorship.
4. **Time of Silence** (44 · ▲48 ▼4) — Luis Martín-Santos, 1962. A young researcher in 1940s Madrid; it renewed the Spanish novel.
5. **Five Hours with Mario** (29 · ▲33 ▼4) — Miguel Delibes, 1966. Carmen keeps vigil over her dead husband and reproaches him for a lifetime.
6. **The River** (28 · ▲31 ▼3) — Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, 1955. A Sunday outing by the river; Nadal Prize.
7. **The Holy Innocents** (26 · ▲35 ▼9) — Miguel Delibes, 1981. Azarías, his kite bird and the masters of an Extremaduran estate.
8. **The Truth About the Savolta Case** (24 · ▲25 ▼1) — Eduardo Mendoza, 1975. Intrigue in Barcelona in 1917–1919; it opened the novel of the Transition.
9. **Requiem for a Spanish Peasant** (23 · ▲27 ▼4) — Ramón J. Sender, 1953. A priest remembers young Paco, shot in the Civil War.
10. **The Tyrant** (22 · ▲27 ▼5) — Ramón del Valle-Inclán, 1926. A grotesque portrait of a Latin American dictator; forerunner of the dictator novel.
11. **Mist** (21 · ▲22 ▼1) — Miguel de Unamuno, 1914. The 'nivola' in which Augusto Pérez goes to argue with his own author.
12. **The Yellow Rain** (20 · ▲24 ▼4) — Julio Llamazares, 1988. The last inhabitant of an abandoned village in the Aragonese Pyrenees.
13. **The City of Marvels** (20 · ▲22 ▼2) — Eduardo Mendoza, 1986. Onofre Bouvila prospers in the Barcelona of two World's Fairs.
14. **The Path** (18 · ▲23 ▼5) — Miguel Delibes, 1950. Daniel 'the Owl', on his last night before leaving his valley.
15. **Games of the Late Afternoon** (18 · ▲21 ▼3) — Luis Landero, 1989. An office clerk invents a poet's life over the phone; National Prize for Fiction.
16. **The Tree of Knowledge** (16 · ▲18 ▼2) — Pío Baroja, 1911. Andrés Hurtado, a medical student, and the pessimism of the Generation of '98.
17. **Beatus Ille** (16 · ▲17 ▼1) — Antonio Muñoz Molina, 1986. A student investigates a poet killed in the war in the fictional town of Mágina.
18. **The Back Room** (13 · ▲17 ▼4) — Carmen Martín Gaite, 1978. A writer and a night-time visitor; National Prize for Fiction.
19. **The Forging of a Rebel** (12 · ▲14 ▼2) — Arturo Barea, 1941–1944. An autobiographical trilogy from Madrid to Morocco and the Civil War.
20. **A Heart So White** (10 · ▲18 ▼8) — Javier Marías, 1992. An interpreter and a family secret, from a line in Macbeth.
21. **Marks of Identity** (9 · ▲14 ▼5) — Juan Goytisolo, 1966. An exiled photographer returns to Barcelona; banned in Spain.
22. **Last afternoons with Teresa** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Novel by Juan Marsé (1966) about Pijoaparte and a young woman from the Barcelona bourgeoisie; Brief Library Award.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.