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 style—economical but vivid—carries the reader through a series of vignettes, following Cela’s many characters through the streets and tenements and brothels and, above all, the cafés of the great beehive—la colmena—of Madrid. Both a social document of its time and place and a moving tale of human suffering—and human triumph--under a totalitarian regime, The Hive is “a brilliant and original work” (Gerald Brenan, The New York Times Book Review).