BARCELONA, Spain - Spanish author Angeles Caso has won the prestigious Premio Planeta, the second richest literature prize after the Nobel, for her novel about an African woman's travails in Europe.

The Asturian writer was awarded the prize late Thursday in Barcelona for her novel "Contra el viento" (Against The Wind) centred around a woman from the tiny African island nation of Cape Verde who emigrates to Portugal and then to Spain.

Misfortune hounds her in Portugal and even after she leaves for Spain. Caso, born in 1959, is also a newspaper columnist.

The prize comes with a cash award of 601,000 euros (S$1.25 million).