Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be three men
Spain's literary world has been
thrown into chaos after a coveted book prize was awarded to "Carmen
Mola" -- an acclaimed female thriller writer who turned out to be the
pseudonym of three men.
Television scriptwriters Agustín
Martínez, Jorge Díaz and Antonio Mercero shocked guests, who included Spain's
King Felipe and Queen Letizia, at the Planeta awards Friday when they took to
the stage to pick up the prize money and reveal the celebrated crime author did
not actually exist.
On the website for Mola's agent,
the writer -- who has been compared to Italy's esteemed novelist Elena
Ferrante -- is described as a "Madrid-born author" writing under
a pseudonym in a bid to remain anonymous. The description for Mola on the
website also contains a series of photographs of an unknown woman looking away
from the camera.
In previous interviews with
Spanish media, Martínez, Díaz and Mercero had presented Mola as a female
university professor who lived in Madrid with her husband and children.
Mola's novels usually revolve
around the character of detective Elena Blanco, described by
publisher Penguin Random House as a "peculiar and lonely
woman" and a lover of "grappa, karaoke, collectors' cars and sex in
SUVs."
However, the book that won the
Planeta prize was not a story featuring Blanco. It is a historical thriller
called "The Beast" set during a cholera epidemic in 1834 and centers
around a serial killer who is hunted down by a journalist, a policeman and a
young woman.
The Mola novels are well known
for being gory and graphic -- and Spanish media has noted in the past that the
contrast between Mola's supposed life as a married university professor and the
violent nature of the books served as a useful marketing tool.
In an interview with the real
authors following the revelation, Spain's El Mundo newspaper reported: "It
is not lost on anyone that the idea of a university professor and mother of
three, who teaches algebra classes in the morning and, in the afternoon, writes
novels of savage and macabre violence has been a good marketing
operation."
The news stunned many fellow
literary figures -- and not everyone is thrilled about the news. Beatriz
Gimeno, who describes herself as a writer and a feminist -- and who was once
the director of the Women's Institute, a key national equality body in Spain --
took to Twitter to criticize Martínez, Díaz and Mercero.
In a tweet, Gimeno said:
"Beyond using a female pseudonym, these guys have spent years doing
interviews. It's not just the name, it's the fake profile they've used to take
in readers and journalists. Scammers."
In 2020, a regional branch of the
Women's Institute included Mola's work as part of a selection of "feminist
reading" alongside Canadian poet Margaret Atwood and Spanish writer Irene
Vallejo.
Mola was still listed as an
author on the Penguin Random House website over the weekend. CNN has reached
out to Penguin Random House for comment but has not received a reply yet.
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