Isabel Allende wins Spain's Premio Planeta under a pseudonym, with a sequel to The House of the Spirits
The Chilean-American novelist, 84, took the 75th edition of the €1m prize for a book that returns to the family of her 1982 debut — and leaves the publishing house where she built her career for its rival, Planeta.
Isabel Allende has won the 75th Premio Planeta, one of the richest literary prizes in the world at €1m (£843,000), for La hora antes del alba, a sequel to her celebrated 1982 debut novel La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits), according to The Guardian. The new book returns to the characters of that multigenerational family saga, set against political upheaval in a country modelled on Chile.
As is customary for the Planeta prize, Allende, 84, submitted the manuscript under a pseudonym; her authorship was revealed only when the winner was announced on Thursday.
El País frames the win as part of a wider reshuffle in Spanish-language publishing: Allende is leaving the publishing house where she built her career across four decades to join Planeta's group, a move the paper describes as a historic episode both for the sector and for the Catalan conglomerate. El País does not name the house she is leaving.
No French publication date for La hora antes del alba has been announced in the material available, and neither outlet gives a French title for the book.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
