Ana María Matute

Ana María Matute , 1926-, Spanish novelist, b. Barcelona. Much of her fiction reflects her searing experiences as a preadolescent during the Spanish Civil War. In simple, delicate prose she writes of isolation, suffering, and anguish. As characters in her novels she favors children, adolescents, and the humble and rejected. Her works include Los Abel (1948), Fiesta al noroeste (1952; tr. Celebration in the Northwest, 1997), Los hijos muertos (1958; tr. The Lost Children, 1965), and Los soldados lloran de noche (1977; tr. Soldiers Cry by Night, 1995). Matute's wartime experiences are reflected in three semiautobiographical novels, Primera memoria (1963; tr. First Memory in School of the Sun, 1989), La trampa (1973; tr. The Trap, 1996), and Luciérnagas (1993, tr. Fireflies, 1998). Several of her short stories were translated in The Heliotrope Wall and Other Stories (1989).

Bibliography: See studies by M. E. W. Jones (1970) and J. W. Díaz (1971).