The Aquitania cycle, a novel with which the writer Eva García Sáenz de Urturi won the 2020 Planeta Prize, came to an end on Wednesday in Santiago. A location that is not accidental, since it is the starting point of the work. “The Duke of Aquitaine, the father of Eleonor of Aquitaine, came here as a pilgrim and the day he arrived, Good Friday, 1137, he was struck down in front of the main altar of the Cathedral,” he explained.
Aquitania has managed to rise as the best-selling novel in 2020 in Spain. There are already 12 editions and there are more than a dozen translations. A historical thriller whose main character is Eleanor of Aquitaine, who will do everything possible to discover what is behind the murder of her father, Duke Guilgèm de Peitieus.
The plot is surrounded by enigmas, sigils, revenge and even incest. A balance between fiction and historical rigor that the writer claims to have achieved by giving herself the licenses she considered necessary. “I know that the publishing world is a lot of pure genre. If you write historical, let it be historical; if you write thriller, let it be thriller. But I think it has been my natural evolution,” declared the writer.
Saénz de Urturi pointed out during his visit to the city that winning the Planeta Prize was the most important recognition of his career. “I am very proud as a young and professional woman to have won the Planeta Award this year because, as many young women and girls have told me, they already have a reference,” she commented on several occasions.
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