Pablo De Santis Wins First Planeta-Casa de América Award

by Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 5/1/2007

Argentinian Pablo de Santis’s Enigma en París (“Enigma in Paris) was awarded with the first Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América on Monday April 23 in Bogotá, UNESCO World Capital of the Book. The occasion coincided with World Book Day and the Feria Internacional del Libro Bogotá, which took place April 19–May 1. De Santis’s work was selected from 618 manuscripts; the author will receive $200,000.

Enigma en París follows a series of murders in the French capital in the late 19th century, during the World Fair and the construction of the Eiffel tower. The finalist, Peruvian Alonso Cueto’s El susurro de la mujer ballena (“The Whisper of the Whale Woman”), is the story of a friendship between two women Alonso Cueto will recieve $50,000. The winning works will be published simultaneously in Latin America and Spain next month.