Sonsoles Ónega confesses the ‘bad time’ after winning the Planeta award: “My mouth went dry and I got shaky…”

The brand new winner of the literary prize (whose financial compensation exceeds that of the Nobel Prize) celebrated her victory this Monday on her program, where she was honored with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a surprise: going from being interviewed to being the interviewee. Miguel Lago has sat down Sonsoles Onega on the sofa to discover all the details of the gala in which he won the award: “When I heard my name I was shaken… My mouth went dry and I thought I wouldn’t be able to say a word.”

The journalist, author of the novel ‘The Maid’s Daughters’, said: “You introduce yourself under a pseudonym and my family didn’t know anything. Not my parents, not my children… I knew I was a finalist a week before but I didn’t want to tell them anything so as not to disappoint them if I didn’t end up winning.”. And he added: “When my children, Yago and Gonzalo, found out, they were very angry. They were the ones who told me, a while ago, ‘Mom, why don’t you sign up for the Planet thing?’

Sonsoles has confessed that he thought about them during that walk to the stage and, in fact, he dedicated the award to them: “Literature is a solitary activity and you pay a deep bill of disaffection. And the family is the one that pays for it. I hope that when they see understand that it has been worth it,” she said excitedly.

Iago and Gonzalo (the result of her marriage to Carlos Pardo) are the most ‘damaged’ by that time dedicated to the award-winning novel, but not the only ones. Ella sonsoles, she has also ‘stolen’ hours from her new boyfriend, Juan, a financier with whom he enjoyed a romantic getaway to Brazil last August. And, of course, his parents: “The last name Ónega weighed on me at first because they compared me, but now I want to be like my father because I have not inherited his genius. I have inherited other things, such as the capacity for sacrifice, the love for Galicia , a library, discipline… But his genius is unique.”