Overview
- Isabel Allende was announced as the winner at the Premio Planeta gala in Barcelona on Thursday with La hora antes del alba, submitted under a pseudonym, and Valencia writer Sergio Hernández Carrasco was named the finalist and awarded €200,000.
- The winner receives a €1,000,000 gross prize but must cede exclusive exploitation rights of the novel to Editorial Planeta under the contest rules and faces tax and contract realities that reduce the net amount authors actually receive.
- Organizers said the final list included nine works rather than the usual ten after one entry was removed, and coverage differs on the reason with Grupo Planeta citing AI use while other reporting says the omitted title had been previously published.
- The 75th‑anniversary edition set a submissions record with 1,424 manuscripts and staged an expanded gala at Fira de Barcelona attended by King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and senior public figures, highlighting the prize’s commercial pull.
- The outcome underscores the Planeta model that pairs a large cash award with exclusive publishing control, a formula that drives sales and publicity but also fuels recurring scrutiny over eligibility, contracts and the prize’s role in launching books to market.