Bruno Blog

When we reach an age, we see life with different eyes. You don’t want to lose hope and want to see in each step the best of it, but life starts to give warning cries that this train is halfway through and the clock keeps ticking, that everything speeds up and, regardless of the fuzz around you, the train never slows down or stops.

In this novel, Tomás, the main character, loses his wife, Magda, when they were planning to visit Vladivostok. Two years later Tomás tries to make sense of his daily routine as a retired widow: he reads the books she left pending, cycles through the hills of his neighborhood and meets his best friend, who insists on pairing him up. But this summer will change drastically, with the arrival of a new neighbor and her son, making Tomás reconsider what to do in his last years.

This is the reflection I made while reading Lluis Olivan’s novel, VLADIVOSTOK, published by Periscopi, which has recently had noticeable successes like Marta Orriol and her novels LEARNING TO TALK TO PLANTS and A SWEET INTRODUCTION TO CHAOS, also published in Spanish by Lumen.

We have all imagined what we would do when we retire or when we have more spare time, what nobody sees is that we overidealize those moments and what we should consider. Luis dives, through his character, into the meaning of life, the desire of making things when you are not able to, and that other people’s lives can be reflected on your own wishes and lacks.

I am excited to write this week’s blog, as I present a new author who published her second novel yesterday and her first with us. Our storytelling was so beautiful that only for that, the book should work. But the good part is that this book will work since it’s one of the most shocking thrillers that I have read recently, one of those manuscripts which move you for several reasons and in several ways. While reading it, you vibrate and realize that you have something important in your hands, something different, that you have A BOMB.

Her name is Men Marías and we met her thanks to the editing service that our agency offers. She had already published a first novel but, a good sportsperson, she was aware of the fact that being a writer requires professionality, training and learning so she asked for a professional reading and an editing for this novel which was published yesterday by Planeta: LA ÚLTIMA PALOMA. In order to recommend the representation of a manuscript, the editing team needs to be certain that an author is worthy, and this was the case. It happens so rarely that we read immediately when they let us know and Berta, my sister who you already know and who had been an editor long before becoming an agent, noticed something special in Men, something that would hook the readers and told me not to let this opportunity pass. While reading her, Berta had a similar feeling to what she felt when she read the manuscript by Dolores Redondo and that she felt this could be bestseller. So, we didn’t give it a second thought and we offered her to join the SB family and, in less than a month, we had already sent the book to Planeta, to Raquel Gisbert, the great discoverer of great works like EL TIEMPO ENTRE COSTURAS or LA CIUDAD BLANCA. It’s the perfect combo. After an impressive work by Raquel’s team, with Zoa Canovas leading it, among others who have helped perfect this project, yesterday we were the happy witnesses of the publication of a book that will certainly become a HUGE SUCCESS.

So, I can only ask for one thing. READ IT and let me know what you think. Meet sergeant Patria Santiago and dive into the Rota naval base where, behind the police cordon there is a brutal scene and a group of neighbors who claim for justice: the body of Diana Buffet lays terribly mutilated and with huge wings sown to her back. Neither the cameras nor the surveillance helicopter have filmed a single image that could e useful for the investigation: something which is unbelievable. Sergeant Patria Santiago knows that the killer will strike again, but nobody believes her, not even the corporal Sacha Santos, (who would love to be something more than her colleague) who thinks, like the rest of Rota, that Patria has undergone pain far too long to be trustworthy. There is just one clue, the research that Diana was conducting about the base and its connection with the disappearance of a young girl seventy years before, when the Americans arrived in Rota seem to be the only threads.

Only those who have experienced the pain can face such a macabre crime

I am sure that Men’s voice won’t leave anyone indifferent, and the plot will keep you hooked until the very end.

Now that the sun and the good weather seem to be coming back, I am glad to speak about a new author in the agency, Diana Pardo, who arrives to our bookstores by the hand of Titania, with ABRIL DESCUBRE EL MAR Y LOS HELADOS DE FRESA in the romantic genre (in which she has already left her mark with her “trilogía del Sofa”). I devoured this novel in a weekend, because it’s addictive and because I always liked love stories, regardless of the format. This novel made me feel the butterflies in my stomach like at the beginning of a new relationship. One day, Abril, in her forties and with the full pack: married, with a child and bank debts, wakes up to hear her husband say he has accepted a new job in Miami where he has met a new dream with the name of a woman. Abril is in shock, but her best, wild friends, Maura and Susana, will help her overcome the pain after 20 years of marriage and will encourage her to fall back in love, even though Abril no longer believes in love or her appeal. That is why, when she meets Oscar, a wonderful and attractive personal coach, twelve years younger than her, she can’t even fathom someone like him falling for her, teaching her to live through gratitude and making her open her heart while awakening her high voltage sexual appetite. Even in her wildest dreams, Abril wouldn’t have imagined recovering love in capital letters with someone like Oscar. Even Pedro, her husband, will be gobsmacked once he realizes he made a mistake and expresses his wish to go back home. What will Abril do? Will she go for Oscar and this uncontrollable love, or will she forgive Pedro, who promises to bring back what they lost? A well-written, fresh and intense story which will make the fans of Elisabeth Benavent and Megan Maxwell fall in love. A perfect mix for lovers of love stories. It’s an ideal read to get ready for the summer.

Some time ago I decided to surround myself with people with a positive energy. Those who always smile, see the bottle full, with a positive vibe. As Marian Rojas would say, vitamin people. I try to be one, as I believe that someone who helps others also helps themselves. These people, with endless positive energy, who don not complain even with the worst disasters and solve, act, and keep dreaming. I always wonder if they have a secret and Xenia Vives with her book TENER SUERTE EN LA VIDA DEPENDE DE TI, published in Catalan by Editorial Columna and in Spanish by Aguilar provides the answer: they are people whose well-being does not depend on others or on external elements. They know that being lucky depends on them and they follow the philosophy HAPPY GO LUCKY.

Xenia explains in an easy and effective way, with humor and practical advice, how to live your life following this philosophy and succeed at:

• Attracting fortune with a positive and relaxed attitude.
• Being satisfied with your life, making the most of the opportunities.
• Not depending on the external circumstances, other people’s opinions, or absurd compromises.
• Freeing yourself from toxic thoughts. You will stop overthinking circular ideas that do not lead anywhere.
• Understanding that only 10% of the luck in life depends on what happens. The other 90% depends on what you make of it.
• Getting rid of bad emotional habits to become a Happy-Go-Lucky person.

If none of these six elements appeal to you, it is clear you do not need this book. But if you wish for at least one, it is worth knowing Xenia’s methodology and to join the HAPPY GO LUCKY philosophy. Only with more happy people we will make “fortune” reign in this complex world which can become easier to manage if one knows how to. Do you dare to read it? You lose nothing and gain a lot. Namaste Xenia.

According to the World Health Organization, every 40 seconds someone commits suicide in the world. This headline struck me, but what made me reflect was the fact that the highest suicide rate happens in countries with a high income and that it is the second cause of death among people between the ages of 15 and 29, after traffic accidents.

It chills me to think about such figures and to conceive so many people wanting to kill themselves and actually doing so. That is why, when Francesc Miralles let me know that he had read in the New York Times that there was a Japanese man who lived in a cabin by rocky mountains where many people came to kill themselves and he offered some tea and a chat in his cabin, I thought that Francesc would be able to make a great story out of that fact. And he committed to writing it, but only with the help of another great name in the agency, Ángeles Doñate, who is outstanding at describing feelings. Thus, here is another wonderful story by this fantastic tandem Miralles-Doñate, who is always successful, who explains in UN TÉ PARA CURAR EL ALMA, published by Zenith editorial, how this man manages, with a chat and some tea, to convince someone to fight for life. Different characters strip before some tea and a main plot guides us to this spot halfway between eerie and magic where the characters’ feelings and the humble advice of someone who lives alone, provide us with a deep story that leaves its mark. Thank you for treating this topic with the necessary warmth and for the advice the reader gets between lines.

A novel which heals the heart and the soul.