Isabel Allende wins the Planeta and returns to Alba’s story
La hora antes del alba wins the 75th edition. The ceremony took place on 15 October; EFE’s report is dated 16 October.
Isabel Allende has won the 2026 Premio Planeta with La hora antes del alba, returning to the fictional world of The House of the Spirits. The award was announced in Barcelona on 15 October, with EFE reporting the following day. The novel centres on Alba, Clara’s granddaughter, whose story resumes after the events of the book that made Allende famous.
The author entered under the pseudonym Luz Ventura. Now in its seventy-fifth edition, the prize awards one million euros to the winning novel. Sergio Hernández Carrasco’s La añoranza is the runner-up, receiving 200,000 euros. In remarks reported by EFE, Allende connects her return to this family’s world with the importance of memory: literature offers space to question the past and understand the present.