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Isabel Allende Wins Spain's 1m Planeta Prize With House of the Spirits Sequel
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Firstpost•19-10-2026, 08:41
Isabel Allende Wins Spain's 1m Planeta Prize With House of the Spirits Sequel
- •Isabel Allende won the 75th Premio Planeta, Spain's 1m award for an unpublished novel, using the pseudonym Luz Ventura.
- •The winning book, La hora antes del alba, serves as a sequel to her 1982 debut, The House of the Spirits, following the character Alba 44 years later.
- •The novel explores themes of authoritarianism and democracy, drawing parallels to current global political climates and Allende's own experience with exile.
- •The Planeta Prize requires the winning novel to be published by Planeta, with the book expected to hit bookstores in November.
Key Questions Answered
Isabel Allende won the 75th Premio Planeta with her novel titled La hora antes del alba (The Hour Before Dawn), which she submitted under the pseudonym Luz Ventura.
The winning novel acts as a sequel to her 1982 debut, following Alba—the granddaughter of Esteban Trueba and Clara del Valle—as she returns pregnant to the family home after surviving imprisonment and torture under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
Isabel Allende received the €1m award in Barcelona on Thursday night from King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.
