To those who follow informatively year after year the Planet Award They fantasize that at one of these galas the name of a complete stranger would be made public, but apparently the marketing strategy for the best-endowed award in the world – one million euros – does not allow it. An operation of this type should not be left to chance and thus the bet year after year plays it safe, mostly on authors of recognized commercial solvency and usually members of the large family of the Planeta group. This year, ignorance has come from the hand of the finalist, a 23-year-old writer, Alfonso Goizueta with a historical novel about Alexander the Great, but the winner could not be more popular. This is the presenter and journalist Sonsoles Ónegaalready experienced in the exercise of building best-sellers for Planeta, who will see his sales increase with his new novel, ‘The maid’s daughters’, a family saga in the first thirds of the 20th century set in Galicia.
The journalist with the bangs with her live evening program ‘And now Sonsoles’ -in tough competition with Ana Rosa Quintana’s program, which it has surpassed in audience- is today one of the most recognizable faces on Antena 3, owned by the group, so the award could not have fallen more at home. The winner displayed a lot of emotion and joy at the award ceremony held at the Oval Room of the Palau Nacional of Barcelona and he made his television tables very evident. It is no wonder that in just five years she has gone from being a parliamentary columnist for Tele 5, where she trained, to being the star of the afternoon magazines after her high-profile signing for the group, something that the granting of this award further consolidates. further. Her rival, Ana Rose, He has not ventured into the novel again since in 2000 the success of his debut, ‘Sabor a hiel’, was deflated when it was discovered that he had plagiarized the British romance novel author Danielle Steel and Ángeles Mastretta. Planeta withdrew the title from bookstores.
Melodrama with secrets
The winning novel of 2023 points to a classic theme of 19th century serials, that of babies of different social status changed at birth. In this case, they are two girls, both born in a Galician manor, one in the manor house and the other, the maid’s daughter, in the guards’ house. The girls have the same father, the lord of the mansion, but they are changed in their cribs by the servant who wants her biological daughter to have more opportunities in life. Reading “easy and exciting” They rate the novel at the publisher, especially when the action is partially transferred to Cuba – so exoticism is served. There is also no lack of female empowerment from the creation by the maid’s daughter, who is unaware of her origin, and by her official mother of a canning emporium upon their return to Galicia, cornering even the biological children, not very happy with the situation. The melodrama is served.
Furthermore, the author knows well the Galician location since, although she was born in Madrid 45 years ago, her father, the well-known and veteran journalist Fernando Ónega which since the Transition has been a reference both in the press, radio and television, was born in the province of Lugo. Precisely, when collecting the award he remembered that his father advised him that when receiving an award he should say “many thanks.” “We are the books we have read,” claimed the author when collecting the award that she dedicated to writers with children and to the children of writers.
The presenter, who despite her busy work life has apparently always found time to write, did not achieve wide dissemination among the reading public until her fourth novel; the previous ones passed without pain or glory in bookstores. Went with ‘After Love’ which was achieved in 2017 by Fernando Lara Award when he really achieved success thanks to a novel set in the 1930s and that follows the difficult loves of a soldier and a housewife unhappy in her marriage. Love and heartbreak were also the substrate of ‘A Thousand Forbidden Kisses’, his next novel. In various interviews, the author has expressed her desire that her work as a best-selling author ends up being her main job over the years.
Twenty-something and finalist
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The big surprise of the night was the finalist, the twenty-year-old from Madrid, Alfonso Goizueta, who despite his youth, already has an estimable career as a political analyst of international relations and is a great lover of history. In ‘The blood of the father’, The finalist novel portrays a historical myth that is also youthful, the raids carried out by the king of Macedonia who ascended the throne after the death of his father and became the great military leader of antiquity. From “psychological novel” They rate it in the editorial. “Behind the myth is the man,” the author explained in relation to his hero and defined his novel as “a journey to discover ourselves.”
Goizueta studied at King’s College London and in 2017 published his first essay, a history of Western diplomacy between the creation of the German State and the start of the Second World War and a year later, ‘The Last Rulers of Castile’ . He debuted in fiction with ‘Corazón deidades’, in the tiny Caligrama publishing house, a novelized chronicle of the history of classical mythology.