Carmen Mola is a Spanish author of detective novels. Madrilenian born in 1973, mother of three children and a high school teacher, she signed a trilogy of which the first two parts, The gypsy bride and The purple network were published in France by Actes Sud. It’s for another book, The Bestia, that she received Friday the prestigious Planeta prize, endowed with one million euros – much more than the 10 euros given to the winner of Goncourt, its French equivalent. Only here: Carmen Mola does not exist.
Behind this pseudonym actually hid three men: Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez and Antonio Mercero. “Three writers, three screenwriters and three friends (…), who, one day, four years ago, had the crazy idea of combining their talents to write a story together”, revealed Jorge Díaz after the award ceremony . “This story was successful and gave another, another, another… and in the end, it brought us here tonight,” he added.
“A false profile that fooled readers and journalists”
Not everyone liked the deception, however. “Beyond using a female pseudonym, these guys have been giving interviews for years. It’s not just a name, it’s a fake profile that fooled readers and journalists ”, reacted feminist author Beatriz Gimeno on Twitter. El Pais found a visionary Facebook post from
another writer, Ana Ballabiga. In July 2020, she suggested that behind Carmen Mola were hiding three men. She imagined them in a bar complaining that their books weren’t selling and building a marketing strategy around a female pseudonym.
In the columns ofEl Pais, Antonio Mercero denied such a cynical approach: “We did not hide behind a woman but behind a name”. “I don’t know if the female pseudonym is more selling than the male pseudonym, I have no idea, but that doesn’t seem to be the case,” he also said.