Bruno Blog

Because of my profession, I read a lot, and I can assure you that many novels are published but there are readings that leave a mark, that I will always remember when and where I read them, and when I think about them I can still feel the taste in my mouth left by those words.

It happened to me with A SON by Alejandro Palomas. I fell in love with Guille, his father, the psychologist, and Nazia. I revalued Mary Poppins and I cried, because this story that both kids and adults can read, touched me a lot. We have translated A SON into 18 languages and we keep receiving letters from children from different schools thanking Alejandro for writing this book. Every time I get one, I get these goosebumps, because then they say that young people don’t read, and there are some who not only read but also send letters, like the one you would send to your favorite football player, expressing what this novel have made them feel. This is magic, better than the one Mary Poppins could do. For this reason, I’m proud to announce that on March 19 A SECRET will be published, the second part, although I do not like to put it that way. This time it is the story of NAZIA, Guille’s friend, an immigrant, and due to unclear “problems” her parents  go to jail, and as a consequence, Nazia will have to live with Guille and his father, without understanding what her family did wrong.

Maria, the psychologist, will have to take care of her and will be again an important piece in this relationship of Guille-Father and the host sister, because Nazia has a secret she only wants to share with her friend/brother. She will discover her feelings, her heart, and her true passion for another character who is not Mary Poppins, even though Guille does not understand it, but THE CINDERELLA. Does it take more magic to find such a special reference, again, in the classic books to talk about what it is like to be an immigrant, what it feels like being alone? We will talk again about family relationships, parents and children in such a tender way that sometimes you have to stop reading, pause and breathe in order to go on. This can only be written by Alejandro Palomas, I do not think that any other author has the ability to write for such a wide audience, with that intensity that hurts, and moreover, that each reader feels differently.

An addictive and enjoyable reading, but only a wizard of letters can write so well. Thank you Alejandro for this new novel that maintains such a high level, that I cannot say that it is better than ONE SON because it is one of my favorite novels, but it does equal it and that it has many things that surpass it, because you have outperformed yourself as a writer. Two books that I will never forget again and that live inside me like a little treasure.

Today the blog is for children, a funny story that we can read with parents and thus, encourage reading time in family. A child who sees books at home will always be more curious to read than the one that does not see any, and if the reading time is a family moment, where parents lead their children to magical and different worlds, I’m sure that many will know how to find the beauty of a book.

Revolta dels mitjons (the socks’ riot) by Sebastià Bennassar is a funny story for them, and for the fathers and mothers who are always running late because of the washing machines:

Martina is eight years old and she is very clever: her parents are dedicated to the world of literature, he as a writer and she as a translator, so Martina has empowered her imagination all her life.

When she hears her mother complaining once again that the socks are gone, she shares her theory with her good friends, Oleg and Isa: the washing machine is a door that leads to a parallel world where all the lost socks can be found.

Accompanied by her friends, she decides to embark on this adventure: Oleg and Isa distract the person in charge of the laundry while Martina goes inside a giant washing machine. Suddenly, once inside and already on the move, a hand pulls her and takes her to Gelàndia, a different world where she meets Gregor, a curious being with only one leg and three eyes.  

There, Gregor tells her how his world works: they have magical drawers that when they put their hand, they take out a random sock. Fascinated by her discovery, Martina decides to accompany her new friend to school, where she meets more children like him and learns new things about his world. For example, that humans like her are considered a threat, since an ancient prophecy assures that a human girl would be the end of Gelandia.

Scared, many of the children denounce Martina who, in spite of having the support and protection of her new friend, condemn her to a duel of stories. At this moment, Oleg shows up to find her friend, and Martina asks him to leave and find her parents to be her representatives in this battle.

Without hesitation, Martina’s parents run to save her, but they don’t get the chance to participate in the duel, as the storyteller from Gelàndia denounces the tyranny of his governors and assures that the true prophecy speaks of a human girl who will give them freedom. Finally, Martina and her parents can return home, with their new friends and the satisfaction of having discovered the great mystery of the missing socks.

A week ago, the new book was published by the great Spanish tandem Francesc Miralles and Héctor Garcia, who after selling more than 1,500,000 copies worldwide with their book IKIGAI, translated into 44 languages, have created ICHIGO-ICHIE. It was hard for me to learn this Japanese name, but after reading the book, I can assure you that I repeat it mentally many times a day. IGHIGO-ICHIE is an expression that can be found in most Japanese tea shops, and it means something like: MAKE EVERY INSTANT SOMETHING UNIQUE. The time to drink tea should be a moment of relaxation, of calm, of being able to taste it without haste, without our mobile phones nearby. Maybe in the East they can easily do it, but here in the West I think we hardly try to create a moment like this. More and more people are becoming aware of this, but there are still few who get to have that moment every  day, which can be with or without tea. I suppose you have to build a certain personality to be able to sit down and to think that we can free ourselves from the past and the future, to enjoy every moment, in the present, because if we let it go, we will have lost the chance to live that instant again.

However, I put myself in the shoes of those who are not going through a good time, and I am sure that your mind frequently travels to the past to remember the good old days, and to the future to wish this streak to be over soon. According to the authors, we translate emotions into time, and this does not allow us to live in the NOW, where serenity and joy reside, despite the bad moments. There are always bad times, moments that we would prefer not to live, but we must go through them, accept them and learn from them, because the here and now is what makes us alive. The present is a gift that must be opened, and although sometimes the day can be hard, is where the key to happiness lays. By incorporating the ICHIGO ICHIE to our routine we will learn to create unforgettable encounters in professional and personal life, improve our personal relationships and live every moment as if it were the last.

At the end of the book, the authors indicate the principles of ICHIGO-ICHIE and I must confess that it is not easy to apply them all, but I am trying. I must thank Francesc and Héctor again because it is a book whose purpose is the same as IKIGAI: to help us to live better, because there is only one life. We know it but we are not aware of it.  For this reason, it is worth living every second as something unique, and squeezing it like a lemon. It’s another wonderful book from which we can learn a lot. Happiness depends only on us and we can make this a pleasant path for ourselves and for those around us.

The meaning of revenge in the dictionary is: reprimand against someone. Normally someone will seek revenge when justice fails or thinks justice has not been done. I don’t think revenge is healthy, but I can understand that there are times when you feel that human need to avenge someone. This is what happens when Miquel, protagonist of the novel SAL ROJA by Ramon Gasch and Teresa Sagrera, a worker in the salt mines of Cardona, happy with his family, he sees how the  Felipe’s army massacre his village in the midst of the War of Succession, and kill what he loves the most: his family. From that moment on, this happy and familiar man will have only one objective: revenge. We will discover the Wolf of Cardona, who will be the leader of the guerrillas, and how he survived this era.

Ramon Gasch, author of BON COP DE FALÇ and LA VENJANÇA DELS ALMOGÀVERS, is a writer with a very good trajectory within the historical novel, and now returns with a great subject. It takes place at the beginning of the Reign of the Bourbons in Spain, which were no longer supported in 1711 by Catalonia, nor by Holland or England, who gave support to Charles of Hasburg. When the war was lost,  the Treaty of Utrecht was over, which recognised Philip V as King of Spain. From a Catalan village called Cardona, with its famous salt mines, the writers of this novel tell us this historical episode that marked the history of our country, and that will help us understand some problems still unresolved today, strange as it may seem. History should serve us to remember and to not fall into the same mistakes of the past.

To

LOVE FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Today, on Valentine’s Day, we see hearts everywhere, boxes of chocolates in hearts shape, shirts full of hearts and even, heart-shaped hamburgers. I find it normal that each business tries to sell their products on this special day, and every year we are more imaginative with traditions that, perhaps, not everyone wants to celebrate, because love is usually related to being in a relationship. But love has many shapes and should be with us every minute, every second, and not once or twice a year.

However, today I also look opportunistic and I am taking advantage of the moment, since I have in my hands the right book for today, but it’s a trap, because this book is forever. Alex Rovira, with the collaboration of Francesc Miralles, tells us about love like you never heard it before. LOVE is the most powerful energy that we have, the one that unites us to the others in our day to day, and for that reason, we have to understand it and spread it. Love has three axes: the first is understanding, the second is taking care and the third is inspiration. Alex and Francesc invite us to think about raising the quality of our love bonds with couple, friends, children or even with the work team, and increasing our balance of love. Love is energy that well channeled will make us happy: the ones who love in fullness will find the meaning of his life, because to love is to live and to live is to love. The Zenith publishing house published this book a week ago and we are already reediting it, and that means that love interests us all, that we all need it, but we need to know, above all, how we can empower it because it is the key to happiness. Who doesn’t want to know the secret, when it is also something we all have inside and we just have to listen to it? A wonderful and necessary book for each person who wants to make this world a better place.

day, on Valentine’s Day, we see hearts everywhere, boxes of chocolates in hearts shape, shirts full of hearts and even, heart-shaped hamburgers. I find it normal that each business tries to sell their products on this special day, and every year we are more imaginative with traditions that, perhaps, not everyone wants to celebrate, because love is usually related to being in a relationship. But love has many shapes and should be with us every minute, every second, and not once or twice a year.

However, today I also look opportunistic and I am taking advantage of the moment, since I have in my hands the right book for today, but it’s a trap, because this book is forever. Alex Rovira, with the collaboration of Francesc Miralles, tells us about love like you never heard it before. LOVE is the most powerful energy that we have, the one that unites us to the others in our day to day, and for that reason, we have to understand it and spread it. Love has three axes: the first is understanding, the second is taking care and the third is inspiration. Alex and Francesc invite us to think about raising the quality of our love bonds with couple, friends, children or even with the work team, and increasing our balance of love. Love is an energy that well channeled will make us happy: the ones who love in fullness will find the meaning of his life, because to love is to live and to live is to love. The Zenith publishing house published this book a week ago and we are already reediting it, and that means that love interests us all, that we all need it, but we need to know, above all, how we can empower it because it is the key to happiness. Who doesn’t want to know the secret, when it is also something we all have inside and we just have to listen to it? A wonderful and necessary book for each person who wants to make this world a better place.