Bruno Blog

13th of December, Saint Lucy’s Day, the day that officially started the Christmas celebration, but this was before, because today everything starts earlier. I remember that the 13th of December started at the Christmas Market in the Cathedral, and together with my parents and brothers we went to buy a new tree and to have dinner outside, just a sandwich, but we were really thrilled because of what it meant. I loved sharing this tradition and the celebration with all the family, something I still enjoy, because even though things may change, the Christmas spirit lingers on forever. For this reason, I encourage you to keep opening the windows of our advent calendar, in which we offer the best gifts for these days: the books.

5th of December: HOTEL METROPOLE by Sebastià Bennassar

Sebastià Bennassar goes back to Lisbon, one of his favorite scenes, and brings us a contemporary novel about the role of the CIA and the spy women during the Cultural Cold War. Hotel Metropole was the most sold book at the Catalan Books Week in Mallorca (2018).

6th of December: OBAGA by Albert Villaró

We bring back a classic! Mystery, corruption and humour in this crime novel settled in the rural world.

7th of December: PATENT-LEATHER SCARS by Berta Pichel

A wonderful love story set in the dawn of the Spanish Civil War.

8th of December: THE WHISPERER by Malenka Ramos

Who doesn’t love a horror story? A truly different kind of horror! A book that was chosen to be presented at the Sitges Film Festival to study its screen adaptation.

9th of December: Bye Cinecittà by Julián Comas

For the cinema lovers, a historical fiction that memorates the most successful and great cinema events through a love story.

10th of December: PEQUEÑO CURSO DE MAGIA COTIDIANA by Anna Sólyom and Francesc Miralles

The everyday happiness can be found in our little rituals, which we are often not aware of. This book is an invitation to be happy with the little moments.

11th of December: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU BROKE MY HEART by Rocio Carmona

A novel that will make you cry and laugh, a book that will teach you that a broken heart can beat again.

12th of DECEMBER: The Spring’s Epidemic by Empar Fernández

A perfect portrait of the World War and the epidemic worldwide known as the Spanish Flu in the 1918. An amazing story where passion and love seem to be the only answer and the only cure.

December is here, so Christmas is definitely coming. Streets are fully decorated, they shine with lights and everything seems better, or at least that’s what we try. I like these days and I don’t wanna lose my Christmas soul, but as I grow older, I feel that somehow I’m not as excited as I used to be, because everyday I am more aware of the world we live in, and even though we look happier during Christmas, everything turns blue again right after. Magic disappears and almost nothing has been really true. It seemed that even people smiled more often, but we turn off the lights and also our smiles. It seemed that people looked more after the others, but we turn off the lights and we are not even capable of looking at each other’s eyes. So this kind of Christmas is not good enough for me: I’d rather a more stable society, where real feelings would lead us every day, not only these fifteen days and like a mandatory thing.

However, I still feel that my Christmas is special because that’s how it has been since I was a child, so I try that the Christmas I used to spend in family stays the same all the year with family, friends and workmates. That’s why I wish to share with you our Advent Calendar we’ve designed to recommend you a book everyday, and not only for Christmas. Because a present is given whenever we want to, to say thank you or ask for forgiveness. A book is always a great fellow traveler and a wonderful gift, without the need to celebrate a special day. So let me introduce you the first four numbers of our calendar:

1st of December: ‘THE TEMPLE OF THE HEART’ by Lola Sorribes: to those who wish to get over a break-up or those who wish to help those who suffer it. The Temple of the Heart is an inspirational book that has been included in the ‘Más Leer’ list as one of the bests to recover from a love pain.

2nd of December: ‘LUNA AND THE BODILESS’ by Ana Alonso: the most successful YA fantasy serie. And there’s more… It includes an app with stories that complement the paper book! + 12 years old.

3rd of December: AS WE WERE by Sílvia Tarragona. As we were is capable of explaining those truly important in our lives, which don’t depend on our luck or the fluctuations of a changing heart. The important things are the relationships we have been building for years: friends, partens, maybe couple (not in this book) against the volatile workmates or unstable lovers. The human relationships are proven with perseverance, love and friendship during years.

4th of December: 18 MONTHS AND ONE DAY by Paz Castelló: a novel about the abuse behaviour, a very intense psychological thriller.

One of my favorite subjects was literature. It looks evident but it didn’t have to be this way by then. However, I remember when I started pure literature, which I enjoyed a lot with my teacher Josefine, who made me laugh by reading classical novels by Spanish and European authors, and I still remember how and when I devoured these novels. From the Science Tree by Pio Baroja at the bus stop while I was waiting for the kid who I babysitted, to Otelo by Shakespeare, that I read during the Christmas Holidays when my parents were already working and I had the house for my own, all the sofa for myself next to the Christmas tree that my mother still decorates with love every year. Another author that marked me , years later, during the hispanic philology class, was Lorca, the great Lorca. For this reason, when Víctor Amela told me his new project a couple of years ago, I was thrilled, and we finally have the novel in the bookstores. I COULD HAVE SAVED LORCA is the most solid book by Amela, who has worked on something very close to him, his grandfather. A story about a whole generation and a tribute to all these people who lived a tumultuous period. Manuel Bonilla, Víctor’s grandfather, gathered these people who were in danger of the republican side and moved them to the rebel faction, because he knew all the ways pretty well. And the 16th of August in 1936, Luis Rosales’s plan when he returned from the front that night was quite the opposite: to get his friend Federico out of the house in order to get him into Republican hands, and to do that Víctor knew that he could rely on his grandfather’s help. Luis Rosales had realised that, in the face of the governor of Granada’s murderous delusions, Lorca was no longer safe, not even in that important falangist house, in his own house. They returned from the front at ten o’clock at night, but they had already got Federico Garcia Lorca out five hours previously, at five o’clock that same evening.

Manuel Bonilla was in the winning side but he didn’t win anything, Víctor says, who lived in a small flat in la Trinidad. Like him, many others were silenced, and Bonilla was there together with Rosales and Lorca. Rosales was awarded the Cervantes Prize, Lorca is a universal figure and Víctor considers that his grandfather deserves this novel that rescues his silence, not only him but others who were also heroes. A story settled in the Spain of 1936 but that arrives to New York with Lorca as the main character, even though Víctor gives voice to all these people who were silenced and deserved to be listened. A different, personal and intimate voice about a passage that we all heard about thousands of times but in this novel, you go deeper. This novel an emotional treasure that readers from all over the world should read. They were the true heroes that, in certain way, we own them being here today.

A book that marked my career as a literary agent was Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, which I had the opportunity to represent and sell the book to a wonderful publishing house, Ediciones Maeva. With this special book, many things happened: I had the chance to share a dinner with Frank, a lovely man, or the relationship that we built with Maite Cuadros, the publisher. A great experience, because we finally sold thousands of copies despite the hard beginning. For this reason, when I read THE PATHS OF LIGHT, my mind couldn’t help to establish a similarity with this great book. Coia Valls blushes when I tell her so, because we all know comparisons are detestable and Mc.Court is a referent, but Coia Valls is already a referent here in our country. From the beginning, the author had magic, audience and she goes further in every book she writes, and this is her most ambitious work. An extraordinary novel about a character that we all know his name but we are ignorant of his story. How is even possible that nobody wrote a book about Louis Braille until now? About the person who put light to those who lived in the shadows, the story of a revolution starring a child. The little of a family, the Braille, had an accident that made him lose his sight, but his tenacity will make him choose to pursue a path of adventure and discovery that will take him far beyond anything his contemporaries would have dared imagine.

The life of Louis Braille is an example of perseverance, about how the ingenuity can overcome the lack of resources in a difficult time for blind people, which used to be the homeless or the clowns of the town. The novel is settled in France, half of the 19th century, in a time of riots and hopes. Towns like Coupray, Llemotges and Vichy are the main locations of this story, together with the big city of Paris, that hosts the fight of this humble boy who discovered how to break the chains of the blind people.

This story leaves nobody indifferent: even an institution like ONCE (National Institution for Blind People in Spain) has been very grateful towards the book because until now, nobody was concerned about writing the life of Louis Braille. He was a kid with a desirable spirit but we cannot forget the people who surrounded him: his mother, his sister and above all, Margot, who were essential in this process of creation. A voice, a life, a story that is in the same league as many bestseller books. I truly believe that a publisher from every country will desire to give light to those who live in the shadows, and that many readers will support this story about a great person who worked discreetly. It was about time who someone gave him the protagonism that he deserves. Thanks, Coia, for this wonderful book who touches the deepest layer of our heart, without falling into the pretentious sentimentality.

I always thought that following your dreams is something that we should decide. It does not have to be something impossible to achieve, it is about chasing the things we want: it should be a challenge, an adventure.

At the agency, we receive a lot of emails from people that try to follow their dreams: publishing their book. From here, we always give an answer to these people instead of letting the silence talk. It is not easy because weekly, we receive a large amount of scripts but fortunately, I can count on Joan Bruna, who knows how to deal with this challenging department, and even though we would like to help more people, it is not always possible and to say it, to argue it and to make people understand is very difficult. Joan knows how to handle it and although it is highly likely that we’ve lost many good authors during the process, most of the people are satisfied with our treatment. Writing a book is not something that everybody can do, like the musician: it requires an ability and a training to acquire the necessary skills. We all know how to write, we learn that when we are little, but publishing a book requires more than that. Many people think that the training is a waste of time but one needs to learn to be a writer. You can own an innate talent like the athlete but without training, you cannot improve.

For this reason, we decided to join the literary advisory and writing school Historias donde vivo (Stories where I live) to help people to improve their writing skills. Our last creation is this magical notebook. I like to call it like that because it is the beginning of an adventure for those people who wish to face the challenge of writing. This notebook is much more than a travel diary or a compilation of notes. It is a methode. You have in your hands a tool that will allow you to successfully go through the first stage of a writer: the planification and the beginning of the process of writing. Twelve steps that you decide when, depending on how many hours you can devote yourself to the writing. You will learn in a systematic way because that’s how a novel is supposed to be written. You can take the notebook to the beach, to the mountain, and get inspired while you are sunbathing or having a coffee while it’s raining outside. You only need a pen and willingness to accept the challenge. Or it can also be a very special gift to someone who wants to write. The notebook is a tool, a starting point, that you can face in your own or accompanied by the online materials that the notebook includes, because all the writers complain about the same thing: writing is a solitary job. And that’s true and the reason why I encourage everyone to visit our online school so they can share both their positive and negative concerns. A magical notebook that I would have enjoyed as a Christmas present when I was little. So, do you know anyone who would enjoy this ride?

More about the notebook: https://historiasdondevivo.com/producto/planifica-tu-novela-en-doce-pasos/