Endowed with one million euros: Sonsoles Ónega wins the Planeta Prize

2023-10-16 12:45:00

The 45-year-old, best known in Spain as a television journalist, receives the one million euro award for her historical novel “Las hijas de la criada” (“The Housekeeper’s Daughters”).

1,129 unpublished novels were submitted for the 72nd edition of the competition – more than ever before in the history of the Premio Planeta. The second prize, worth 200,000 euros, went to 23-year-old Spaniard Alfonso Goizueta for the book “La Sangre del Padre” (“The Blood of the Father”).

The Premio Planeta has been awarded annually since 1952 by the publisher Editorial Planeta for the best unpublished novel in Spanish. A special feature: The authors have to submit the manuscripts under a pseudonym, so that unknown authors also have a chance – they were often victorious. The winners include big names such as Mario Vargas Llosa, who later won the Nobel Prize in Literature.