To those who have some interest in the literature of Spain as it has developed since the end of the Spanish Civil War it must be evident that it lacks a feeling of a continuity of tradition; this same lack is even more pronounced in the field of intelligent research into and comment on this literature outside of Spain. We must establish a tradition, a frame of reference, for the post-Civil War literature of Spain. For instance, who are the major figures in today's literature, in this case, in the novel? Four names are the ones which have the best odds of being mentioned: Zunzunegui, Cela, Carmen Laforet, and Gironella. Of these, Zunzunegui is not a distinctly post-war literary figure, since his first novel was published in 1931. Cela and Laforet are perhaps the Spanish novelists best known outside of Spain, but they are rather more unique than representative of the contemporary novelists. Gironella is the one of those mentioned who would seem to align himself most readily with whatever characteristics the present-day Spanish novel has. Carmen Laforet won the first Premio Nadal awarded, for 1944, with her novel Nada; and Gironella's Un hombre won the Nadal Prize for 1946. The most obvious means at our disposal, if we are to avoid the accusation, if not the actual fact, of treating our subject in a void, is to establish a list of major figures and study their interrelationships, their similarity or dissimilarity, their unity or disunity. With what are they concerned? What is their attitude toward events of the recent past, toward their Spain, toward their world? Thus we may be able to work out some design, some frame of reference which to judge on its own merits what young Spanish minds are producing, avoiding the application of standards which are not necessarily applicable to Spanish literature. Luis Romero would seem to merit our consideration as a worthy candidate for inclusion in this list. Romero is a resident of Barcelona for most of the year, although he travels extensively; he is a Catholic, as he says, by birth, education and belief. He spent something more than a year in Buenos Aires, where he wrote his first novel, La noria (Barcelona, 1952), with which he won the Premio Nadal for 1951, thus joining a small but distinguished group of winners of Spain's foremost literary prize. La noria is an outstanding piece of literature, a remarkab y skillful first novel that places its author well up front in the competition for recognition as one of Spain's leading young novelists. This novel, together with Carta de ayer (Barcelona, 1953), Romero's second novel, shows great promise for the future of Spanish letters. It would be fitting here to outline the plot of La noria; but there is no plot, no single hero or leading character. The people of Barcelona are the leading characters of this novel, which covers some twenty-four hours of life in this large, cosmopolitan Spanish city. In each of the 37 chapters which make up the novel the author focuses our attention