The maid's daughters (Planet, 2023) is the winning novel of the 2023 Planeta Prize. It has the signature of the presenter and novelist Sonsoles Ónega who is in charge of telling in this book a little piece of her family's Galicia through the history of a Galician lineage.
At the beginning of the XNUMXth century in a Galician manor, two babies are born, Clara and Catalina. Two very different destinies were prepared for these two girls., but the adults' spite will change their future as the world around them also transforms.
The maid's daughters: two girls, two destinies
Secrets and family in Galicia in 1900
In February 1900, in the Galician country house of Espíritu Santo, two girls are born with very different destinies and who are intertwined by greed, the mistakes of adults, as well as the desire for revenge. Catalina and Clara become pieces on a game board in which their parents strive to give them the best location.. Doña Inés is the wife of Don Gustavo, patriarch of the Valdés family, which is dedicated to the canning and sugar industry. She is a rich family that has also made its fortune from farming in Cuba. Doña Inés tries to put her life back together and the destiny of her real daughter despite the pain of betrayal and the impediments that women of that time encountered in a closed and rural environment.
In this novel there are many elements that allow for an enjoyable and entertaining read: a journey through history, realism, heartbreak, human vileness and betrayal, the fight to achieve equality for women, and also rights that are denied within the family. . Besides It is a story full of secrets, revenge, but also justice, which will not leave indifferent the reader looking for this type of fiction.. Ónega takes a tour of Galicia during the first half of the XNUMXth century and shows the prosperity of a family full of lights and shadows in a narrative in which the absolute protagonists are its female characters.
A truncated destiny
The intrigue is introduced in the corners of each page and is responsible for setting the pace of the novel along with the courage of the female protagonists to change a truncated destiny. The characters are non-conformists and are not intimidated by the avatars and the multiple adversities encountered along the way.
There is no doubt that The maid's daughters It has a perfectly balanced combination between the best of the historical novel and a text in which human feelings and weaknesses disrupt the existence of its characters. However, Ónega avoids sentimentality or unbelievable characters, as well as providing endless data that can harass the reader.
The maid's daughters uses a basic and hackneyed element, that of the poor protagonist and the well-off protagonist, and gives meaning to a story with enough power to create something different without faltering or losing narrative interest.
That truncated destiny that serves as a base or springboard for the novel is used by the author to tell everything else., the historical course of the first decades of the XNUMXth century, the economic prosperity of a family and its intimate decline, as well as the Galicia of the time, its magical mansions and the characters who inhabit them. If we add to this a topic as relevant as female empowerment, it is not surprising that The maid's daughters becomes an editorial phenomenon.
Conclusions
The maid's daughters It is a generational story of a saga of women who fight to be the protagonists of their lives beyond revenge and secrets. The ingredient of destiny is very present, since the key to the novel is found in how envy and revenge get in the way. in the role that belongs to some of its characters by birth and is unjustly taken from them. Furthermore, Galicia at the beginning of the XNUMXth century becomes another character that gives realism to this novel full of exciting twists and human weaknesses.
Sonsoles Onega
Sonsoles Ónega was born in Madrid in 1977. She is a journalist and novelist who also has a book about the 2004 attacks that occurred in the Spanish capital, Where God was not. He studied at the San Pablo-CEU University and later worked as a radio journalist (The afternoon of COPE) and television, the medium for which she is best known. She has worked in networks such as CNN + and Mediaset group. Since 2022 she presents her own space, And now Sonsoles, on Antena 3.
As a writer she has obtained various recognitions, such as the Letters Award for Calle Habana, corner of Obispo, the Fernando Lara Novel Award for After Love y In 2023 he won the Planeta Prize for his novel The maid's daughters.