Isabel Allende Claims €1m Planeta Prize with Pseudonymous Sequel to 'House of the Spirits'
Chilean-American author Isabel Allende has won the €1m Premio Planeta, one of the world’s most lucrative literary awards, for her novel 'La hora antes del alba'. The 84-year-old writer submitted the manuscript under the pseudonym Luz Ventura, surprising judges and audiences at the 75th edition ceremony in Barcelona. The book serves as a sequel to her 1982 classic 'The House of the Spirits', focusing on the character Alba’s recovery from torture during Pinochet’s dictatorship. Allende described the win as comparable to the Nobel Prize, noting that she had avoided competitions previously to avoid the embarrassment of losing. The victory marks a significant shift in her publishing career, as the prize requires the winning work to be published by Planeta, moving her away from her long-time publisher, Plaza & Janés.