La calle de las Camelias

In Camellia Street, Rodoreda leads us, gradually and intimately, into Cecilia's descent into hell, a woman deeply scarred by the abandonment she suffered at birth. Despite being taken in and raised by a loving middle-aged couple, Cecilia fails to find her place in the world, desperately and fruitlessly seeking it in the beds of various men. With prose that seems—only seems—simple and imbued with spoken language, Rodoreda intertwines Cecilia's love affairs with the poignant sense of loneliness and nostalgia that typically characterizes her characters, always in search of freedom.