I head towards the Llotja de Mar thinking that if I could interview Isabel Allende (Lima, 1942) –because she hasn't granted us the honor at ARA– I would need three questions and sincerity. Why change publishers at 84 years old, after 45 years of million-selling books? Why revisit, precisely now, The House of the Spirits? And the million-dollar, or millions-dollar question: how much has she been paid, aside from the Planeta Prize? The writer has so far avoided the controversy over the latest great flight in the publishing sector, but since this Thursday she had a great swordswoman in front of her, the journalist Júlia Otero, I thought perhaps she would unsheathe her foil. No such luck. But I admit that, seeing the stage, pompous and giant, with 500 people present in the flesh and those following it globally via streaming, and with the top brass of Planeta in front –as Otero pointed out with intention–, perhaps it wasn't the moment. In exchange, they treated us to 45 minutes that were fun and full of witty phrases, showcasing the fame of being a great conversationalist that precedes her.

"I had never entered a literary contest to avoid coming in last,", asserted Isabel Allende during her acceptance speech for the 75th Planeta Prize, endowed with one million euros, which meant she would leave Penguin Random House and join the group currently presided over by José Creuheras. The news has reopened, once again, the controversy over publishers changing by some authors, often spurred by literary awards for unpublished work, but also by economic offers difficult to refuse (although they do not usually transcend), by the desire to give a new boost to their career by changing houses and even as a sign of protest.

The AI has received its first Planeta award tonight in Barcelona. But it is not, in this case, a machine capable of generating a novel that has deceived the jury, but the initials of the winning author, Isabel Allende, the best-selling living novelist in Hispanic literature, with more than 80 million copies sold. The 84-year-old Chilean author entered the 75th edition of one of the best-endowed literary awards – surpassed by very little by the Nobel Prize, which offered 1.1 million euros to the winner, Anne Carson– to culminate her extensive career and star in an editorial scandal: Isabel Allende is changing houses.