The Planeta award is just around the corner and there are many spotlights focused on the award and wanting to know who will be the next winner and finalist. However, it is difficult to overcome the surprise that occurred in the last edition, worthy of a Black Mirror script in terms of surprises, since the trophy went to Carmen Mola, the fictitious identity of someone who until now had always written under a pseudonym and who it also comes from the rival group, Penguin Random House. Beyond that, three men wrote under that name: Antonio Mercero, Agustín Martínez and Jorge Díaz.
There were many headlines that the also scriptwriters took over, since the fact that three men called themselves Carmen was a highly debated topic. Until the prize revealed their identities, they had always answered the interviews by email, assuring La Vanguardia in May 2020 that “I will never voluntarily discover the identity of Carmen Mola. Besides, she doesn't have much of an interest, I assure you.”
On another occasion, he stated: “I can be a famous writer, a provincial official, a university professor or a truck driver who travels through Europe and writes at motorway rest areas. What I do tell her is that my mother does not know that I am Carmen Mola”. What would happen to her if one day they discovered her? “If one day it happens, I don't think anything will happen at all. I will live it with discomfort, but naturally”.
But this wasn't the only time the award has been talked about for more than just the winners themselves. The cover of the first winning novel in 1952, In the night there are no roads, by Juan José Mira, had a controversial cover. While it was not something that was talked about at the time, it has been criticized years later. In it you could see a man about to slap a woman. An image that would incite gender violence.
Years later, in 1964, Concha Alós won the Planeta award for the second time. A couple of years before, she did the same with Los enanos. But what happened is that the Plaza publishing house
