Jorge Franco wins the 2014 Premio Alfaguara; Alfaguara imprint sold to Penguin Random House for $100 million

In the past 48 hours, two exciting bits of news has come out of the Spanish publication field:  1) On the eve of Alfaguara, the imprint founded 50 years ago this summer by Nobel Prize-winning writer Camilo José Cela, was sold, along with related imprints by the Prisa Group for $100 million to Penguin Random House.  This in effect creates a duopoly in the Hispanophone market, as the various imprints under the PRH and Planeta groups will control the vast majority of works published in Spanish across the globe.

This news comes on the eve of the announcement of the winner of the 2014 Premio Alfaguara, which was awarded tonight.  The winner was just announced about an hour ago and for the third time a Colombian, Jorge Franco, has won the award.  Here is a screencap of the synopsis pic tweeted out after the announcement:

Sinopsis de la obra de Jorge Franco ganadora del #PremioAlfaguara de Novela 2014. pic.twitter.com/lIwxXmg9nu
— Prisa Ediciones (@PrisaEdicionesC) March 20, 2014

Franco's book should be available in stores in 2-3 months, if recent publication histories of previous winners is any indication. I plan on reviewing that, along with other Premio Alfaguara winners, during the course of this year.