How are the nine novels that aspire to win the 75th Planeta prize?

BarcelonaA total of 1,424 novels were hoping to win the 75th Planeta award until a few minutes ago, when the publisher announced, in a press conference at the Palau de la Música, which are the ten finalist works that the jury will take into account in the final deliberation, which will be made public during a dinner at Pavilion 1 of the Fira de Barcelona, in Montjuïc. "We can only be grateful to all those who have entrusted us with their most precious treasure, the effort of their creativity –assured José Creuheras, current president of Grupo Planeta–. Our great aspiration is to give maximum popularity to the winning work, regardless of the critical reception the books may have, which are ultimately endorsed by the response of the readers, which is very high and has increased in recent editions".

The profile of winners in recent editions is full of in-house authors (Luz Gabás, Eva García Sáenz de Urturi, Dolores Redondo), but the jury has also recognized figures known to television viewers such as Sonsoles Onega and Juan del Val, and has achieved some remarkable coups, such as the unmasking of the enigmatic Carmen Mola five years ago, behind which hid three screenwriters, Antonio Mercero, Agustín Martínez and Jorge Díaz. This year the composition of the Planeta jury has changed, with the incorporation of Paloma Sánchez-Garnica and Javier Sierra –winners of the 2024 and 2017 editions, respectively–, who have teamed up with the veterans Pere Gimferrer, Luz Gabás, Carmen Posadas, Eva Giner and Belén López, editorial director of the Planeta label, who acts as secretary with voice and vote.

These are the nine novels that aspire to win the one million euros of the 75th Planeta award. Normally the list was made up of ten novels, but one of them has been disqualified because it was published while the jury was evaluating the submitted texts. The finalist work will receive 200,000 euros.

1. La sombra de Isabel, by Pedro Regalado Rodríguez. This historical novel stars Isabella I of Castile and is marked by the intrigues of the royal court and the exercise of power, which implies not only making decisions but also assuming them.
2. Letraherido, by Pepe M. Carrascosa. A former police officer turned criminologist and writer helps a former colleague investigate a series of deaths that have one aspect in common: next to the corpses, a book from the bookcrossing exchange network always appears.
3. Orange Dawn, by Tamsilt El Hayani (pseudonym). The protagonist of this novel discovers that she has been a victim of a stolen baby ring in Barcelona and decides to undertake a journey to find her origins.
4. Los caminantes, by Martín Guerrero (pseudonym). A novel also set in Barcelona, in this case at the end of the 1950s, where a young woman falls in love with a French translator who enigmatically disappears from her life. Two decades later she discovers a report from the Francoist Social Brigades that links this translator to a plan to assassinate the poet Antonio Machado.
5. Kintsugi or three broken souls, by Hugalma de la Sierra (pseudonym). Three people who, due to their emotional crises, do not know how to cope, meet in a therapeutic workshop inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, which consists of repairing broken objects without hiding their wounds.
6. La noche de los faroles, by Mencía Salazar (pseudonym). One of the other historical novels that were finalists is set in 1780, in the middle of the American Revolutionary War, and has as its starting point a Spanish spy who obtains the secret codes of a convoy destined to supply British troops.
7. The missing ones, by Luz Ventura (pseudonym). The beginning of this novel explains the return of a pregnant young woman to her family's home after having been imprisoned and tortured by the dictatorship of her country. She will rebuild her life based on the desire to help the most humble people.
8. Lennon's Garden, by Jorge Herrero (pseudonym). A supposed secret son of John Lennon, a member of the Beatles, motivates an investigation by four music-loving journalism students. That initiatory adventure will turn into a farce that will end in betrayal.
9. La mujer desnuda sale a las once, by Bernardo Galeana (pseudonym). Set in Mexico, the ninth finalist novel features a young artist who, years after establishing himself, is kidnapped by a collector who forces him to portray his lover.

The unstoppable growth of the book

"Since 2013, general interest books have grown by 56% –recalled Jesús Badenes, general director of the publishing division of Grupo Planeta–. Two-thirds of this growth has taken place over the last five years, and it has to do with the book's value chain and also with the dissemination provided by cultural journalism. Just last year it grew by 3.8%, and the growth of novels, manga, and non-fiction should be highlighted, with phenomena such as Murdoku, of which we have sold almost a million copies". Badenes also highlighted that "young people are reading more and more". "Social networks have had a positive effect on certain books, especially through platforms like TikTok", said Badenes, who also recalled that 92% of the total copies sold in the country are in paper and the remaining 8% are in digital format.