Juan del Val, winning pen of the Planeta Award 2025

Juan del Val has won the Premio Planeta 2025 thanks to his novel Vera, una historia de amor, prevailing among the 1,320 works submitted to this 74th edition of the prestigious literary award. Under the pseudonym of Elvira Torres, the author has captivated the jury with a story that —in his own words— "speaks of true love in all its directions," and that vindicates the personal freedom that arises when one loses the fear of making mistakes.

The announcement was made last night during the traditional literary dinner held at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), in an evening that brought together figures from the cultural, political, and business worlds. Among the attendees were the Vice President of the Government, Yolanda Díaz; the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni; the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau; the Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández; the Secretary of State for Culture, Jordi Martí; and the President of Grupo Planeta and Atresmedia, José Creuheras.

The prize, endowed with one million euros, remains the best remunerated in Spanish literature and only comparable, in its magnitude, to the Nobel. After the winner, in second position is the finalist novel, which also receives 200,000 euros and the visibility of sharing a tour with the winner of the Premio Planeta. The finalist of this edition has been the Galician author Ángela Banzas, with Cuando el viento hable, an intimate and emotional novel that starts from a childhood memory marked by illness and shared innocence.

In his acceptance speech, Del Val was emotional: "Seeing myself here seems almost a miracle." For the author, Vera is much more than a romantic story: "It is a story about true love and also self-serving love. About a woman who learns to be free when she loses the fear of making mistakes."

With this novel, Juan del Val takes over from Paloma Sánchez-Garnica, winner of the Planeta 2024 with Victoria. The work, which will soon arrive in bookstores under the Planeta imprint, explores the multiple forms of contemporary love —self-love, romantic love, love for life— from an honest and luminous perspective.

For her part, Ángela Banzas defined Cuando el viento hable as "my most special story." The author explained that the idea came from a childhood memory: when she was seven years old, she was admitted to a hospital and shared a room with a girl whose prognosis was not good. "Through the stories we told, she smiled. It was then that I understood the power that books have within hospitals: they not only entertain, they sustain," she recounted emotionally.

Her protagonist, Sofía, is born in Banzas' hometown, in the midst of the Civil War, and grows up in a dark era marked by loss and survival. The author wanted to pay homage to the tenderness and resilience of childhood, building —as she herself said— "a white sail on the horizon." It is, furthermore, her first novel in which the love story "ends beautifully."

This year's gala has also been a celebration of the good moment the publishing industry is experiencing. According to the president of Grupo Planeta, José Creuheras, "the book market in Spain has grown by 39% since the pandemic," and the quality of the works presented "has notably increased, with a growing presence of young authors." In fact, the Planeta Award has set a new record in terms of the volume of manuscripts received: 1,320 works, of which 678 came from Spain, 378 from South America, 161 from North America, and 41 from Central America.

In total, throughout its 74-year history, the Planeta Award has received more than 29,000 original works and has sold more than 46 million copies of the winning and finalist novels. A figure that reflects not only the magnitude of the award, but also its cultural impact. The jury for this edition was composed of José Manuel Blecua, Juan Eslava Galán, Luz Gabás, Pere Gimferrer, Eva Giner, Carmen Posadas, and Belén López, all of them prominent names in Spanish literature.

With his triumph, Juan del Val joins the select group of authors who have made history in the Planeta Prize, created in 1952 by José Manuel Lara Hernández, who then endowed it with 40,000 pesetas. Today, more than seven decades later, the award not only continues to reward literary talent, but also embodies the spirit of an industry that, far from being exhausted, is experiencing a new renaissance. In fact, as announced the day before the gala, the director of Planeta's Editorial Division, Jesús Badenes, and the president of Grupo Planeta, José Creuheras, 75% of young people between 14 and 29 years old are regular readers, a figure that rises to 84% among women. "The doubt of whether young people were reading or not —Creuheras affirmed— is no longer debatable: 75% are reading."