Isabel Allende wins €1m Spanish literary prize under pseudonym — SkimNews
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- Isabel Allende won the €1m Premio Planeta at its 75th edition on Thursday in Barcelona with "La hora antes del alba," a sequel to her 1982 debut "The House of the Spirits"; the ceremony was attended by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia
- She submitted the manuscript under the pseudonym "Luz Ventura" with the fictional title "Los que faltan," though Prof Duncan Wheeler of Leeds University said he'd be "very surprised if the judges did not know that it was Isabel Allende"
- The new novel follows Alba recovering from torture during Pinochet's dictatorship, and Allende said it would bring the House of the Spirits universe to a close; the 1982 original is often read alongside Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia
- Allende, forced into exile after the 1973 Pinochet coup that overthrew her father's cousin Salvador Allende, drew explicit parallels between the novel's setting and contemporary politics, saying she feels again the fear that led her to leave Chile as democracies face authoritarianism and fascism
- The win is a significant coup for Planeta publishing group, as Allende has been published by Penguin Random House imprint Plaza & Janés since The House of the Spirits; the prize requires the winning book be published by its sponsor
- Sergio Hernández was named runner-up, winning €200,000 for his historical novel "La añoranza"; Allende's books have sold more than 80m copies worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages
Why it matters: Allende's switch from Penguin Random House imprint Plaza & Janés to Planeta is a rare major-publisher move for one of the Spanish-speaking world's bestselling authors (80m+ copies). For Planeta, the prize — which has drawn criticism for favoring established and TV-famous figures — gains a marquee name, though the publishing-coup angle matters more commercially than any literary revelation, since Allende had a manuscript ready and judges likely saw through the pseudonym.
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