A female Planet Award and best seller: Eva García Sáenz de Urturi, winner, and Sandra Barneda, finalist

• 2019.The year of Javier Cercas and Manuel Vilas

Eva García Sáenz de Urturi

and

have emerged as the winner and finalist of

on Thursday night in Barcelona, ​​in the most atypical ceremony in the history of the award, the best gifted in Spanish letters.

Eva García Sáenz de Urturi has won with the novel

, while Sandra Barneda has been a finalist with

.

Neither the pandemic nor the meeting restrictions have prevented the awards ceremony at an intimate gala with few guests at the Palau de la Música.

A

that has nothing to do with the usual and massive celebrations of the Planet, which bring together authorities, writers and representatives of the Spanish literary scene.

After last year's literary bet with

as the winner and

as the finalist, the Planet of 2020 falls to two best-selling writers.

Since its creation in 1952, only 17 women have won the Planet.

De Urturi joins a list in which authors such as

or

and takes the 601,000 euros of the prize.

An optician by training,

became the best-selling author in Spain practically overnight.

After self-publishing his first novel on Amazon,

(2012), in just two weeks it swept sales and became a phenomenon.

Two more novels (about 500 pages on average) and, in 2016, he published his most famous series, already in the Planeta publishing house:

A saga that has already sold more than a million copies, has exceeded 50 editions and has been adapted to the cinema by

In 2018, De Urturi closed the trilogy with

And although she is not lavished much in the media, she is one of the few authors who can overshadow

the great lady of the historical genre.

The presenter and writer Sandra Barneda SERGIO ENRÍQUEZ-NISTAL

The popular television presenter

has been a finalist and takes 150,250 euros for a more intimate novel.

Although the most visible face of Barneda is that of the host of

as

or

, the journalist has written five books (six with this one) since she published her debut feature

in 2013

The jury made up of Juan Eslava Galán, Carmen Posadas, Rosa Regàs, José Manuel Blecua -in replacement of his brother Alberto, who recently passed away-, Fernando Delgado, Pere Gimferrer and Belén López has highlighted a predominance of thrillers, historical novels and the presence of female protagonists among the

A planet with a mask

The Planeta Prize is a symbol of Spanish literature: the most well-endowed award on the literary scene and which normally ensures that a novel becomes a best seller.

In the year of

the massive literary gala has been transformed into a ceremony with a strict protocol of security measures to maintain distances.

It was neither in the great Oval Room of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya as in 2019 nor in the Palau de Congressos as in 2018, but it was in a mythical setting in the city: the modernist Palau de la Música.

Despite the pandemic, Grupo Planeta has not renounced its tradition and celebrated the 69th edition of the award.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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