One million euros in prize money: Spanish Planeta literary prize for three authors

One million euros in prize money
Spanish Planeta Literature Prize for three authors

The writers Jorge Díaz (rl), Agustín Martínez and Antonio Mercero have won the Spanish literary prize Planeta. Photo: Kike Rincón / EUROPA PRESS / dpa

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They write together under the pseudonym “Carmen Mola”. The authors Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez and Antonio Mercero have received the lavish Planeta literary prize for “La Bestia”.

This year’s Planeta Literature Prize went to three authors for their novel “La Bestia” about the hunt for a serial killer in Madrid in 1834.

Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez and Antonio Mercero, previously known more as screenwriters, had published the books under the pseudonym “Carmen Mola”. Her identity was only revealed at the award ceremony on Friday evening in Barcelona, ​​to the great astonishment of all guests, as the newspaper «El País» reported.

Just under a year ago, «Mola», who allegedly was a professor born in Madrid in 1973, announced that there was no reason at all to reveal her identity, as «El País» went on to write. The most valuable literary award in the Spanish-speaking world, which this year was increased for the first time by the Planeta publishing house from 601,000 to one million euros, apparently changed the mind of the authors.

The prize of 200,000 euros for the participant in the final round went to Paloma Sánchez-Garnica for her book “Últimos días en Berlín” (Last Days in Berlin) about a family caught between the Russian Revolution and the emergence of National Socialism.

The prizes were presented on Friday evening at a gala in Barcelona. Since it was the 70th and thus a round edition, King Felipe VI. and Queen Letizia present.

As part of the trilogy previously published under the pseudonym “Carmen Mola”, Alfaguara, part of Penguin Random House, published “La novia gitana” in 2018, “La Red Púrpura” in 2019 and “La Nena” in 2020. A fourth part, «Las Madres», is due to appear next March. The focus is on the investigations of the police officer Elena Blanco. The books have so far reached a circulation of 400,000 copies.

dpa

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