Bruno Blog

In May 1940 Hitler and his soldiers occupied Paris. In a very short time, 100,000 French people died and more than 1.5 million were taken to prison. The roads quickly filled with refugees fleeing southward, and France was in complete shock.  This is how the so-called French resistance was created, a movement that fought against the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.

Xulio Ricardo Trigo has just returned to the publishing market with an excellent novel on this subject: LA NOIA DE LA RESISTÈNCIA (“The Girl of the Resistance”). It is a work that links two periods through two connected stories. The first of these takes place in the nineties, where we meet Meritxell, a successful writer who begins to reflect on the different works she has done throughout her life. She realizes that she knows everything about the stories she has written, but that she knows nothing about her own history, that of her origins. The second story places us in Nazi-occupied Paris in the 1940s. It is here that Anne-Marie, a girl who lives with her parents in a small boarding house, meets Armand, a boy who is trying to flee from the German invaders. Thus, begins a love story in a country at war in which two young people will discover the power of first love.

LA NOIA DE LA RESISTÈNCIA presents a story with some characters who embody the strength of ideals and fight against the monster of fascism. I believe that Trigo perfectly portrays a key period in our history and manages to make us think about our own family roots. Without a doubt, it is a wonderful novel that has been impeccably edited by Columna publishers. I really hope this work ends up occupying a space in the best-seller lists this spring, it deserves it.

I ended 2019 wishing this 2020 would be better. January is not an easy month: it’s cold, the Christmas lights go out and everything gets darker and sadder. Besides, if we come from negative inertia, it’s complicated that our attitude changes from one day to another. Despite this, we are lucky to have books in our agency that help us have more hope for what is to come. One of them is UN CORAZÓN LLENO DE ESTRELLAS (“A Heart Full of Stars”), by Àlex Rovira and Francesc Miralles, which, translated into nine languages and preceded by an excellent sales record, has been re-launched this month by Plataforma Editorial. Sometimes we think that these books have gone all the way and that everyone has already read them. However, experience has shown us that we were wrong and that there are still people who can discover these magnificent stories.

UN CORAZÓN LLENO DE ESTRELLAS (“A Heart Full of Stars”) offers us an endearing story full of hope and invites us to discover the unlimited power of love. The work takes us back to 1946, in Selonsville, a small village in the Alps. The harshness of a long winter refuses to leave the city that is recovering from the deep wounds of the war. From the roof of an orphanage, Michel and Eri, two inseparable friends, gaze at the night sky without knowing that the next morning Eri will no longer wake up. She is in a deep coma that the doctors are unable to reverse. Little Eri’s life is at risk, and the only one capable of helping her will be Michel, guided by the wise advice of an old woman. To achieve this, Michel will have to accomplish a mission: locate nine people and make a heart out of pieces of her clothing. During this adventure, the child will have to find out the secret of the unlimited love hidden inside him.

You don’t have to be in Michel’s situation to feel lost, it’s normal to feel that way in our daily lives. It is in these circumstances that a book, something that many do not value enough, can become an ideal tool. There are books as magical as this one that can help us. The authors of this book invite us to build a heart with pieces of people’s clothes that bring good things to our lives. My heart would be very big because I am lucky to be surrounded by good people, an extraordinary family and authors like Àlex and Francesc who guide us so that we can wake up every day with a smile. I thank Plataforma Editorial for recovering the backlist of these authors and not allowing these stories to fall into oblivion.

As many of you know, my sister Berta has been working with me for many years. Even though we have our ups and downs, I am very lucky to have her by my side, as without her this agency would not have made it this far. Besides, she has something I’ve never had: the publisher’s instinct. Berta believed in many novels that have ended up having a strong international impact. As an editor, she launched several titles written by Dolores Redondo, Sílvia Soler, Care Santos or Rafael Nadal for the Catalan market. For that reason, when she told me that we had to represent Jordi Solé, I didn’t hesitate for a second. 

When Jordi Solé first told me about the Pink Panthers I knew practically nothing about this gang of thieves. It surprised me that they were capable of robbing luxury establishments all over the world in just 60 seconds. So I investigated. The Pink Panthers’ shenanigans inspired a TV series, The Last Panthers, starring Samantha Morton and John Hurt. There are also several documentaries for film and TV, such as Smash & Grab, the Story of the Pink Panthers, directed by Havana Marking, or Pink Panthers: les braqueurs du siècle by the French journalist Vanina Kanban. And even a comic book from the series Gangs, with a script by Jean Claude Bartoll and a drawing by Kerac. But amongst all these audio-visual productions, there’s still not a novel about them… This is how EL TIGRE Y LA DUQUESA (“The Tiger And The Dutchess”) was born, defined by its Spanish-language publishers as an urban, addictive and thrilling novel, and yes, although it sounds very cliché, it is. 

I have blind faith in Berta’s judgment. I think publishers should look at this novel. Harper didn’t think twice about it, since Elena García Aranda, another Spanish publisher with this “gift”, saw it very clearly from minute zero. I think that this novel already deserves a reading space for all those who like adventure, mystery, crime fiction, and well-written thrillers. I leave you with a summary of this novel so that it does not go unnoticed by anyone:

The body of a young woman who died with a smile on her lips appears in a square in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona. Agent Elsa Giralt, questioned since her partner was quadriplegic in a gunfight, will have to solve it if she doesn’t want her career, and perhaps her life, to go down the drain. But what appears to be another crime will become something much more important and convoluted when Dragan Jelusic, the most wanted member of the most audacious jewellery-thieving gang on the planet, the Pink Panthers, enters the scene.

EL TIGRE Y LA DUQUESA (“The Tiger And The Dutchess”) is an exceptional piece of work, of which you enter and no longer leave. As Susana Hernández has said: One of those novels that you can’t read in the subway because you’re sure to miss your stop.

Now that Christmas is over, the rush to get to everything and the feeling that the hands of the clock are moving faster against me have returned. I feel that I would need a 48-hour day and, even so, I do not know if I would be able to reach everything.

I know I’m not doing well with this lifestyle, and Cristina Benito has once again made me think seriously about it with her new book TIME MINDFULNESS. It is not the first time that this economist has helped me to improve some aspects of my day-to-day life, because with her previous work, MONEY MINDFULNESS, I learned how to manage money properly. This time Cristina has taught me with her new title a method to control my time, something that I consider more valuable than money, because without time you cannot enjoy anything.

We all know that bad time management generates a permanent state of stress that causes many diseases and prevents us from enjoying life. When the lack of time becomes chronic, we run from urgency to urgency, renouncing what is important to us, endlessly postponing our priorities.

Cristina Benito teaches in TIME MINDFULNESS a revolutionary method to manage our time and live in a more prosperous, serene and creative way. Don’t you go to sleep with the feeling that another day has passed, and you haven’t enjoyed it enough? If that’s the case, we have a failure in time management, and we are “surviving” and not living. Our goal should be to try to live as much as possible in a peaceful, serene and safe way.

Thank you, Cristina, for a new book essential to start this 2020 well and teach us this method that will help us to be a little more aware of the things we can do and how much we can enjoy them.

On December 31st, THE BOOK OF ICHIGO ICHIE, by Francesc Miralles and Héctor García (Kirai) was published in the United States. This title has already been translated into 27 languages and the authors’ previous work, IKIGAI, is still a bestseller with more than one and a half million copies sold worldwide. I don’t think that two Spanish authors have ever achieved so much success with a single book, and even less so in a country like the United States.

The last day of the year is special for everyone, many of us have desires and illusions for the coming year. It’s irremediable to want things to go a little better for us. For that reason, we always make some resolutions to improve some small things in our lives. The literal translation of the Japanese proverb of ICHIGO ICHIE would be “once, an encounter”, however, the authors propose another even more complete meaning: “every moment is unique in our lives”. The saying reminds us how important it’s not to let ourselves be carried away by the past or the future, because sometimes, in the rush of everyday life, we really forget to live. ICHIGO ICHIE is a reminder that every moment is precious and unique, and that we should enjoy it.

I am sure that many of you have already read THE BOOK OF ICHIGO ICHIE, but for those who have not yet been able to do so, I can tell you that it’s a great book to start the year, as it will help you to be able to appreciate the little things of everyday life. ICHIGO ICHIE is an inspirational work that will show us how to:
 
– Free ourselves from the past and the future to make each moment something unique. 

– Bring into our lives the Zen that Steve Jobs learned from a Japanese master, and which proved to be the key to his success. 

– Turn coincidences into a tool for conscious magic. 

– Create unforgettable moments in professional and personal circles.

– Improve our relationships with a new type of Mindfulness. 

–  Open the floodgates to the flow of creativity whenever we need it.

Without a doubt, the Miralles / Kirai tandem is one of the most authentic in “self-help” literature. Reading them helps you to believe in yourself and to be convinced that if you want to, you can. We just need to be more attentive to what we do and not think so much about what we will do. Sometimes we forget that each moment is unique and unrepeatable, and THE BOOK OF ICHIGO ICHIE teaches us to give importance to all those moments. Happy New Year, happy start of the decade and happy “encounters”, I hope this book will be an inspiration for this month of January to be the beginning of many things.