Isabel Allende Wins €1 Million Planeta Prize For Returning To The House Of The Spirits (Picture Credit – Reuters)
\n\nForty-five years ago, Isabel Allende began writing a letter to her dying grandfather, whom she could not visit because she was living in exile. That letter eventually became 'The House of the Spirits', a novel that introduced readers to the extraordinary Trueba family and established its author as one of Latin America's most celebrated literary voices. Now, more than four decades later, Allende has returned to that fictional world and won one of the world's richest literary awards.
\n\nThe 84-year-old Chilean novelist received Spain's prestigious Premio Planeta 2026 for 'La hora antes del alba' ('The Hour Before Dawn'), a novel revisiting the characters of her 1982 debut. The award, announced in Barcelona on 15 October, carries a €1 million cash prize.
\n\n'The House of the Spirits' follows generations of the Trueba family through love, political upheaval and the violence of dictatorship. Combining magical realism with historical fiction, the novel explores how national tragedies become inseparable from intimate family histories.
\n\nAllende's new book centres on Alba Trueba, the granddaughter of Esteban Trueba and Clara del Valle, as she attempts to rebuild her…
Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle
