Bruno Blog

I want to highlight the following sentence from the back cover of this book: “Sometimes we cannot stare reality in the face, so there will be times when this novel will be uncomfortable, but it will be too late to run away”. This is really what has happened to all of us who have read EL CONFIDENT. A novel that hooks you and makes you think that if the story is based on reality, we can start running because living in Barcelona is dangerous. The streets of Barcelona will become the scene of this novel that reads like a true crime, written by a boy of the Criminal Investigation Unit.

A war for control of territory and drug trafficking in Barcelona between different criminal groups during 2016 and 2017 brought blood to the streets and filled the headlines of the press at the time. With shootouts and hired hitmen acting in a scenario of violence and power where drugs played an important role.

This reality has been the source of inspiration to write the novel that I have in my hands now. Those facts have allowed the author to create the perfect environment to explain a story of revenge, and that was born from facts as real as those that happened in our house. EL CONFIDENT is a choral novel starring several characters who, united by a past marked by pain and resentment, one day had to choose between their lives or to settle accounts: Emilio, an ex-military of the Colombian FARC with a truculent past; Raül, a father who cannot forget his son, and Esmeralda, a Colombian girl victim of the internal drug trafficking war and now infiltrated in the criminal network. The three of them will push Sergeant Elisa Codina and the foreman Jordi Carter, two members of the Catalan police who will have to fight, from very different positions, to try to put an end to the fight between the criminal groups.

Unfortunately, every day we see more news where stabbings, and even shootings are present in Barcelona; if you could talk to the writer of this novel, he could explain things where we would say that reality exceeds fiction, so I recommend you to read EL CONFIDENT where you will know the B side of a Barcelona six years ago, but where this fight was just beginning. Can you imagine where we are now? Only by delving into these pages you will be able to imagine it.

This book that I recommend today has pleasantly surprised me. Although Sara Teller was co-author with Ferran Cases of EL CEREBRO DE LA GENTE FELIZ (which has sold very well, we are on the seventh edition, and has been published in eight languages) and already started very well within the book world, now she takes a step towards personal wellness (something I never thought the brain could help and be involved in) with NEUROCUÍDATE. (TAKE CARE WITH NEUROSCIENCE). Sara tells us how understanding the functioning of our brain can help us to live better. Don’t you find it super interesting? When we breathe, love, smile, run, get angry, sleep or eat we are creating neural connections and releasing a myriad of neurochemical explosions in our brain; did you know that you will develop one type of brain or another depending on how you live, on the things you do in your day to day life, and you will feel and think in one way or another? I didn’t know that, but reading Sara in this very useful book, I have realized how many things can affect my brain and that I don’t know anything about it. The brain is a complex organ and needs energy. Besides, it controls what you think and feel, how you learn and remember, and the way you move.It also controls many things we hardly realize, such as our heartbeat and the digestion of food. That’s why it is so important and perhaps we don’t give it the importance we should. In this book, Sara discovers what emotions guide it, how moving our body improves our cognitive processes and makes us gain in mental and emotional health, how we can nourish it and give it rest so that it is in full capacity, how social networks impact us at a cognitive level or how we can gain in creativity and productivity.

Understanding the potential and imperfections of our brain, and discovering all its mysteries is key not only to knowing how to improve quality of life (mental and emotional), but also to knowing ourselves better.

It is a necessary, useful and understanding book so that by changing small things we can improve our personal well-being and the functioning of something so important in our body and, at the same time, so unknown as the brain.

For me, one of the great non-fiction titles of this season.

This week’s blog comes with a powerful title, a Non-Fiction title. Francesc Miralles, after NAMASTÉ, co-authored with Héctor García, comes with MAZAL, which has been awarded the Urano Non-Fiction prize and for this reason is coming out a little earlier than we would like, given that we are still savoring the success of NAMASTÉ, and we already have another great book on the market, and I say this firmly. I have been reading Miralles since he started writing, and each time I think that he cannot surpass himself, in each book, he does it, and in this one even more. I loved Mazal because through a simple and close story he shows you the power we have to attract good things.

The expression “MAZAL TOV” is a Hebrew locution that translates as “good luck”. It is a wish that is expressed aloud in Jewish celebrations and its meaning is “I am eager for good things to happen to you”. As always, it introduces us to a new word, which will be iconic for the daily lives of many. Who doesn’t like good things to happen to them? Here are the keys to doing so.

If we explore the deep meaning of each of the consonants that form this word, we will access the true secret of prosperity. The keys hidden in the word “Mazal” indicate that luck does not come “from above” but depends on our effort in three coordinates that we should know and put into practice. In this enlightening fable, Francesc Miralles offers us a fascinating and at the same time practical journey to the secrets of success in life, not only to work success, but to live well, to make the best things happen in your life and to live happily. The key is to learn it and apply it, and how: by the hand of the master and this powerful story that reveals the keys for fortune to manifest itself in your life. Advice that we receive through the simple but profound story of Saul, who after repeatedly failing in his life, accepts a mysterious job opportunity in Krakow, a destination as unknown as it is far from his reality. There he will meet a series of characters who will reveal valuable lessons for life, and above all an enigmatic woman who will teach him, step by step, the secret of the MAZAL, capable of changing his fate forever, or ours as well.

As always Miralles brings us closer to a new concept, giving us the tools for that well-being that our society is looking for and that is so hard to find because it always looks more outward than inward. Great book which will become a new philosophy of life for all those who want GOOD THINGS TO HAPPEN TO THEM.

My first recommendation of the new academic year is a book in which I have full confidence, LIBELO DE SANGRE, by a new author, Sandra Aza, who is going to revolutionize the Historical genre. The truth is that when I read Sandra’s novel, I felt a shiver run through my body, which I rarely feel, despite reading a lot, but which told me that this text had something special. It was a very well documented Historical novel, wonderfully written and, although there was work to be done, everything told me that, if we could find the perfect partner, this would be the novel about Madrid that had never existed, as LA CATEDRAL DEL MAR was the novel about Barcelona. So we went for it, and we have here the great novel of Madrid in the Golden Age. I assure you that, although it is long, like all good Historical novels, you will read it in a weekend. There’s no way to stop. It is one of the great bets of Planeta, who also believed in this novel, and Raquel Gisbert and Zoa have been the perfect team so that LIBELO DE SANGRE does not lack or surplus anything. It is simply a spectacular novel, at the height of great Historical bestsellers. Here is a little bit of the plot:

During the harsh winter of 1620 a gruesome crime has spread panic in every corner of Madrid: a young woman has been raped and buried next to a child whose heart has been removed.

No one in the town doubts that it is a ritual murder, and soon starts a “blood libel” against the notary Sebastián Castro and his wife Margarita, a false accusation that blames the Jews for sacrificing Christian minors to perform black magic ceremonies.

Fortunately, Alonso, the eldest son of the couple, has managed to escape from the Inquisition, in charge of investigating the crime and its horrible methods; but now he must face other dangers no less terrible: cold, hunger and the wretched people who populate the streets.

Devastated and with no other help than that of two rogue vagabonds, he will try to carry out the only goal that keeps him alive: to rescue his parents.

When faith in God kindled hearts, but crimes against it lit bonfires.

I would love for you to give this novel a chance, and for all of you who trusted my intuition with LA CATEDRAL DEL MAR, to do it again now, because they are parallel novels in different cities. Sandra Aza can become, without any doubt, the new Historical bestseller, and bring this genre back into fashion, which we know that when it hooks the public at large, and are reference novels becoming longsellers. This one deserves it, the author is exceptional as a writer, and even more as a person, so I hope that international publishers will ask me for reading material without hesitation, and that in Frankfurt they will already talk about LIBELO DE SANGRE as a new phenomenon, and that readers will bet on this text because it will not disappoint them. This time I have no doubt, it is one of the best novels I have read in recent years.

Yes, here we are again, and with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the long-awaited vacations are over, as well as feeling no stress, enjoying more free time, the sun, and dinners with friends until the body endures. Everything that tastes like summer is nice, so when it ends you feel this emptiness of not wanting it to end, because this rhythm of life is really healthy and the one thing we should know how to maintain throughout the year. However, I am lucky enough to work in something I love, which is part of my life, not to say my whole life and, therefore, the beginning of the year is always exciting. That’s why I was talking about mixed feelings, because I’m down because summer is over, but I’m lifted because of what is coming, because we have great books to start the season, such as the new book by Francesc Miralles, MAZAL, Urano nonfiction award. This one was a book that I read long ago to be submitted for the award, and I liked it so much. I know it will surprise you very pleasantly, and it will continue to open doors to this author. It always seems that his latest work reaches the top, but he is capable of overcoming, and do something better. Incredible!

Just like Míriam Tirado, who comes out with her new book SENTIR. After RABIETAS, REMOVIDAS and LÍMITES, this new book is another one that I find spectacular. Each one is useful, and Míriam grows with each topic helping many people with her books. She’s a crack. Another of the great authors, Álex Rovira, also has a new release for September with TU MENTALIDAD BUENA SUERTE. Alex is another author who transforms and evolves with the world, making books that adapt to new needs without losing their essence. This is something that seems simple to do, but is very complex really, ¡and he makes it easy! Anyone who has been a fan of LA BUENA SUERTE, of which there were millions, can’t miss this one. And Sara Teller, our young neuroscientist, makes her solo debut with her book NEUROCUÍDATE, which brings us closer to our brain one more time, and helps us to understand it and to live better. A match of science and wellness never seen before. I honestly think there is nothing like it on the market.

And now it’s time to review the novels for this season. They all excite me for different reasons. Miquel Esteve is back with AMOR SIN MUNDO, an extraordinary novel about the relationship between Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, two great European intellectuals. Bea Cabezas, an author with whom we have been working since immemorial times, and who had not published for a long time, brings out the novel LA LLIÇÓ DE PIANO, with a key theme: The road where motherhood is going. It will not leave anyone indifferent. In addition, Xavier Álvarez LLaberia publishes a new novel, which reads like a true crime, EL CONFIDENT; lovers of the genre will fall in love with it literally, and Barcelona is the main scenario. And two final big bombshells, the Prudenci Bertrana award with the signature of the great Jordi Solé, L’ANY QUE VAIG ESTIMAR AVA GARDNER, a great novel, with the signature of a great author; and Sandra Aza, a new author who has everything to take our market by storm. If LA CATEDRAL DEL MAR was the novel of Barcelona, LIBELO DE SANGRE is the great novel of Madrid in the Golden Age. Lovers of historical novels are going to surrender to this Madrid, I have no doubt. Go and book it now because it will be sold out in two days. It’s just a hunch, but my intuition often works and LIBELO has everything to succeed. And finally, another novel by Francesc Miralles, with whom I started this blog and it is an honor to finish it with him. He does not abandon the juvenile world, and he does well, because he is also a master in this genre: JOHANNA Y EL DR. FRANKL is another novel of those that leave a mark.

We will be uncovering a little more of each one of them each week, but with this summary, you can already make a list to go to the bookstore and choose the readings that will help you to return to work. Reading is life, and it is always an ideal companion for specific moments, such as the rentrée, and everyone can choose as they feel. You can see that there is a litle bit of everything and everything is good. So happy return to all of you, and happy readings!