Isabel Allende wins the €1 million Planeta Prize at 84 with a sequel to The House of the Spirits

Chilean novelist Isabel Allende has won Spain's Planeta Prize for La hora antes del alba (The Hour Before Dawn), Business Recorder reported. The prize, announced at a ceremony in Barcelona on Thursday night, carries €1 million (about $1.16 million).

At Friday's rate of Rs 310.56 to the euro on our EUR to PKR page, that is roughly Rs 31 crore.

A return to her first book

The novel is a sequel to The House of the Spirits, the 1982 debut that made Allende a household name. It follows Alba, granddaughter of Esteban Trueba and Clara del Valle, as she rebuilds her life after being imprisoned and tortured under Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship in Chile.

Allende, who said she is 84, told reporters the prize felt "like winning the Nobel".

Who pays the prize

The Planeta is funded by the publishing group of the same name, and the winning book is published by Planeta. Allende recently moved to Planeta from Plaza & Janes, part of Penguin Random House, Business Recorder noted.

Reading it in Pakistan

The Spanish edition is published by Planeta; no English translation or date has been announced. The House of the Spirits, available in English, is the place to start for readers who have not met the Trueba family.

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