Bruno Blog

If nowadays there is still the need to claim the role of women in many areas in society, imagine what had to be done during the Medieval Era so women could have a valued role in society. Most of the women accepted their secondary role at men’s service, but there has always been restless, brave, determined and rebel women. One of the few trades women regularly carried out outside the home was assistance to birth. The midwife work was known, during the Medieval Era, like an exclusive or sometimes complementary task in the life of these women. The babysitters and nursemaids from the well-of classes could also be professionals. During the 12^th century different advice to carry out these tasks were gathered in texts named Trotula, where a lot of information about women’s medicine was compiled. The texts of la Trotula are considered the “the most popular montage of materials about feminine medicine since the late 12^th until the 15^th century”.

The lead character of Frost hair, the new novel of Teresa Sagrera, published by Columna, was a healer, midwife that lived in Vila Major in the 14^th century. A woman chased for being a witch and poisonous sought shelter in the Castle of Montsoriu, property of one of the most powerful line of the principality. There she meets Bernat II, viscount of Cabrera who became the first consultant of Pere III, the king of the Aragón crown. Often life proves that a very thin thread separates glory from defeat, and envy and the fight for the power can change people’s lives in the blink of an eye.

A classic cut historical novel, where the feminine character has a lot to tell, where there is a love story and all the necessary ingredients to captivate the readers that like this era so much. Thanks to Teresa Sagrera we can discover the castles of that zone (situated in the Montseny), the rural life and the society, always divided between nobles and commoners.

If you look up in the dictionary the word FREEDOM, you will find the following: faculty or right people have to choose in a responsible way their own path of acting inside a society.

Reading Alejandro Palomas’ new novel, you can feel the freedom of his characters in such a forceful way that you end up almost with the need to fly, to feel the wind in your cheeks and to do what your body tells you to do. We know all his worlds stir the most important thing in human beings, our feelings, and in this novel, not only does it stir them, but it also brings you wings to follow our dreams and be free.

I cannot deny that Alejandro Palomas, in the new world he created, in which he tells the story of a friendship between a mature man and woman has amazed me greatly. Jon, an elephant caretaker and Edith, widow of Andrea and mistress of eleven cats, live in an abandoned village. Lonely neighbors at first and then good friends, neither one of them can imagine that the night in which the vane of the bell tower turns on itself, the eye of time is placed above the village and the life of both is about to turn with it.

The love between an orphan man and a silent elephant named Susi, a Japanese girl with a bird name who speaks with flamingos, a mother and a daughter who search for each other since the time distracted them, a grandfather whose family spell will be law, one hour at night- the tremulous hour- in which everything happens, and everything stays. A land with your name is the bravest dream of two souls that strive to make the world into a better place. A story about LOVE in capital letters, about honesty with one’s dreams and about freedom taken to its purest expression.

Every time that Alejandro hands over to me his new manuscript I feel dizzy because I know it will stir something inside me. This novel had me falling in love because of so many small things, which are actually huge, that I do not know how to explain the way I felt when I finished it. Like each of Alejandro Paloma’s books, it has left a deep feeling inside me which is difficult to explain and I need time to digest it. A great novel written by this author who is pure emotion and when you get into his world, it is impossible to get out, not because you cannot, but because you do not want to.

One of the books that I have as reference, and it is not a classic, is WONDER. It is a book that I really enjoyed because of many things but the most important one is to learn to accept yourself, that being different does not have to be a bad thing. There are sentences that I have underlined and I had the same feeling with the young adult book of Coia Valls, published in Catalan by Animallibres and let’s hope that soon will see the light in Spanish, given that is an adventure book which aims to update the myth of the panther women and go in depth in matters like accepting oneself, and others, the courage that means to dare to listen and make decisions , the value of friendship and love as a source of freedom. Emma Ambrose lost her parents in a car accident. Shortly after, a police inspector knocks at her house and tells her that, in his opinion, the accident from her parents was a murder. A letter from Mali seems to be the confirmation of this suspicion. Emma decides to travel to Sahel with the hope of finding out the truth, and maybe be able to reveal the mystery of her odd nature, because Emma has a secret: Some nights she disappears and when she wakes up, she does not know what she did nor where she has been.

A novel for those teens who like adventure with traces of fantasy novel with archaic, mysterious, wild, and enigmatic horizons.

Emma must grow up overnight, face that her parents are no longer beside her and take the initiative. A difficult step for every teen to take but she takes it even though that does not mean that she does not long that innocence from when she was a kid, and her mother would tell her stories to end her fears. It is an enigmatic character, she is afraid of losing control, of the fight of that animal and brutal of her shifting nature that uneases her. She must be strong to keep control but without meaning to void the wish. Because what would life like without wishes?

A captivating novel from which we can pull from different strings to understand human nature. Coia Valls had already published children books. Here she goes into the young adult world exceeding expectations.

I know Nadia Ghulam since more than ten years ago and she is one of the best people I have met. She was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she spent her childhood and adolescence, which were pretty rough given that she made herself pass as her brother, who had died, in order to save her family, until 2006 when she left the country and started living like a refugee in Catalonia. She works as a social educator and is an activist for human rights and peace. She has never stop fighting for her country and her Afghan family. Nadia founded the Ponts per la Pau association (Bridges for the Peace Association) which helps children from Kabul to have an opportunity, the one Nadia did not have, by means of education, despite de situation of the country, the one who, unfortunately, has fallen behind and Nadia vindicates now more than ever that we must do something. Her book THE SECRET OF MY TURBAN, published by Columna and Planeta, which has been in the market for more than ten years and has been translated to eleven languages, is about her real story, the one we should all read to know how they used to live in Afghanistan and because after the latest news of the country, seas of people have wanted to leave and become refugees in any other part of the world where there pain and abuse do not exist. Many of us can not imagine this sensation but when Nadia talks about it make your hairs stand on end while stirs the fighting spirit she had and that she keeps alive now more than ever.

This week goes on sale Nadia’s first children’s book, illustrated by Mona Brunet, THE LAND OF THE WINGLESS BIRDS, published by La Galera in Catalan and Spanish, where Nadia has tried to write about the people that escape for having a home and a place to shelter. She dedicates this book to the refugees, her country, the most vulnerable children and to all the people that time after time must fight for their wings to grow, to fly and to find a nest. A book that was started in 2019 and that sees the light just in this moment so convulsive for her native country but so necessary for those of us who live in a world with commodities and can choose when and how do the things we want, gain necessary awareness since little. A book all parents should read to their children to get to know little Bibí and her family who live happyly in the land of wingless birds. One day hundreds of different birds appear in the sky, birds with wings, who see themselves superior to the others and have no respect for anything. Life will change for all those birds that until then have lived peacefully. The fire and horror start to destroy everything, the winged birds run away without helping others. How will the wingless birds avoid the fire? They must run away to survive. Bibí decides to run without looking back, builds a pair of wings with stems and leaves that help to lift her a little but the rain and the wind destroy them. Alone will get nowhere. Who will help little Bibí to get past her fears and set out on this long journey? There is always someone good, I need to believe that, who gives you a helping hand, in this case, wings to help you fly.

Nadia is a born fighter, and with this book we can not only learn about friendship, courage and to worry about others, we can also think about a country that yet again is in the wrong hands and needs our help to no go back.

Buying this book is a first big step because reading always makes us better.

Thursday, the first one after the well deserved holidays, and we want to welcome you to the beginning of this new course, which will come loaded with so many literary releases, which, as always, we will be sharing with you through this blog and our social networks: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter and Youtube, I encourage you to join if you are not already, and also encourage all those who love books to follow us, this way you can be updated of the novelties of our authors, but also with the news and important things in the Publishing World.

Many of you have already visited our new offices in the center of the Barcelona neighborhood of Gracia (Milà i Fontanals, 14, 2º 3ª, 080012) where we are very comfortable and with a different concept of how to approach our work with all the changes that this year and a half has raised us.

We have 4 months left of this 2021 to enjoy good books, discover new voices, consolidate the already known ones and continue walking together in this publishing world that never stops surprising us.