Nine finalist novels will compete this Saturday night for the LXXI Planeta de Novela Award, endowed with 1 million euros, in an edition in which 846 works have been submitted for the award, a figure that represents a historical record of participation. You can follow the ceremony here, in streaming, which will start at 11:30 p.m.
The nine finalists are El avionazo, a story of Frida and Marilyn by José Manuel Mata Muñoz, a fictionalized biography of Frida Kahlo and Marilyn Monroe, as well as Feathers and sand by Álex Oneida (pseudonym), about a young aspiring actress who thinks she has found the opportunity of her life when she meets a mysterious man who plunges her into a sea of ??doubts.
They also opt for the Magdalena award, the look of the heart of Ho Hanan (pseudonym), about one of the great women of the Bible, Mary Magdalene and how she meets Jesus of Nazareth, of whom she will be his most fervent disciple, and The lover of my woman by Gabriela Hausmann (pseudonym), which deals with femininity, sisterhood, the power of love and honesty through a woman and her imaginary lover.
More than seven thousand kilometers from Alma Browncross (pseudonym), in which a surgeon will live an unexpected professional and personal experience in Haiti while his wife is reunited with a love from the past in Madrid, and The City of Illusions by Manuel Millán Sánchez , about an investigation that uncovers an attack planned to force a coup, are also among the finalists.
The other candidates for the award are Río Arriba, by Hoja de Fresno (pseudonym), a love story between an Indian and a French subject at the end of the 18th century; The weaknesses of the Führer. History of a Race: German Shepherds, by Iñaki Carrera (pseudonym), which traces the life of a Jewish family from the end of the 19th century to the Second World War, and ‘El harpista’ by David Galindo Martínez, in which employees of a hotel in the late 1960s, meets to investigate the strange disappearance of some clients.
This edition has seen an increase in historical novels and thrillers, as well as social novels and women’s empowerment novels, while costumbristas and those related to the Spanish civil war have fallen , with greater presence in previous editions.
This edition maintains the 1 million euro endowment announced in 2021 for the Planeta de Novela Prize – endowed until then with 601,000 euros – as well as the 200,000 euro for the finalist work, which until then was 150,250.
The jury for this edition’s prize is made up of José Manuel Blecua, Fernando Delgado, Juan Eslava Galán, Pere Gimferrer, Carmen Posadas, Rosa Regàs and Belén López, secretary with vote.
