Bruno Blog

The back cover of Carolina Lozano’s new book, MEMORIAS SALVAJES, could have been reading my thoughts today. It opens like this: There are moments in life when all is turned upside-down. I am sure it has happened to you too. Everything seems to be going smoothly, and all of a sudden your world collapses and you need to start looking at it all through different eyes. Some… wilder eyes.

I couldn’t believe it, because this is what truly happened to me last week, and I didn’t know how to face the world until I read this back cover. I don’t know if ‘wilder’ would be the appropriate term, but I can assure you that life lectures you, and out of those we need to learn without a doubt.

Carolina’s novel is an example of overcoming. The world of the main character is torn to pieces, but someone helps her from the other side and tells her that keeping secrets is way easier than what it seems and that the most difficult thing is finding the moment to relieve them. Carolina manages to immerse us in a story full of emotion, but above all, humanity:

A. Is going through a really delicate moment after her boyfriend, Connor, breaks up with her. She is left devastated, but reading the memoirs of her aunt Violet, almost a stranger up until then, will help her overcome the rupture.

This memoir is explicitly dedicated to her. Written for and by her. Violet wanted to write down all of her craziness, mistakes, all her life so that her future niece could learn from them

Violet died aged 24 after waking up from a three year old coma – which she fell into after a fatal car crash. Violet, fully aware that even if she had awakened would not survive –her body was rejecting her new kidney- begins to take conscience about her life coming to an end and that only a few days separate her from death.

Anorexia, infidelities, family fights, rivalry between sisters, adolescence and love. That was Violet’s life who, before dying, accepted her sisters wish, the big reveal the novel holds deep in its pages up until the end.

A book about overcoming with a great soul so that every teenager, and those who are not so young, can find our own voice and feel identified.

The world as we know it has managed to impress me. I have always thought the world moves in one direction and I in the opposite one. I sometimes feel as the “weirdo” because I don’t understand many of the things that are happening, at all levels. I understand that if we were to start discussing political problems in the world we would never come to an end. Personally, however, I can barely understand what is going on here, nor anywhere out there, but sometimes I struggle to understand reactions, everyday situations that I would face in a very different way from what most people seem to do. I think we are losing important values like trust and honesty, fidelity and compromise. I do not wish to generalize, it’s never good to do so, but I have recently lived such scenarios, where all those values are lacking, in the flesh. And I must say that it makes me profoundly sad. It is precisely then that I allow myself to be carried away with my thoughts, that take me straight to books. I would not have it any other way. Now I am lead into another world and I try to believe in a parallel universe, maybe the one that Sónia Fernandez-Vidal, one of my greatest authors, is trying to tell me about. The quantum world.

I would like to cross the Door and walk into another place, where things had a different explanation. The physical one might not be the one to help me, in this case, but Nico, the main character of Sónia’s first book LA PUERTA DE LOS TRES CERROJOS, already had an adventure in this parallel world. It captivated teenagers and sold more than 250.000 copies when science fiction books were not a trend, just like now. A huge record that has lead Planeta to publish a second title, LA SENDA DE LAS CUATRO FUERZAS with a new adventure awaiting for Nico, where he tries to reunite with his friends from the other side, but isn’t able to. The entrance to the quantum world is gone until Quinoa, his quantum fairy, comes seeking his help. The laws of physics are out of control and it will be Nico’s and his friends duty to reestablish the balance. In this new quantic adventure Nico will face tests from each and every one of the forces that reign in our universe.

LA PUERTA DE LOS TRES CERROJOS and LA SENDA DE LAS CUATRO FUERZAS are two extraordinary books with science as the back scenario in order to introduce us to the quantum world, which is not easy, but appears to be so in the books. The magic of a special, intelligent author, named one of the most creative minds in the world by Forbes, turns difficult into easy, and boring into thrilling. Can we ask for more from a book for our teenagers? Understanding the world of the intangible is a step forward, and today, perhaps, having an open mind and getting back the lost values is a true necessity.

This week I am writing from New York. What a breathtaking city, it’s beauty hardly matched. Every time I come back I fall in love with everything and discover so many new things that I cannot stop thinking about how fortunate I am for being able to travel here.

I love that, this week and from this beautiful place, I am recommending a novel about cinema and that will be published on the 17th of May. We all think that America is one of the pillars of cinema, with Hollywood and its myths. That’s why recommending ADIÓS A CINECITTÀ from America feels like a very special opportunity, because it welcomes us in a time when Rome, the European city, not American, had its own factory of dreams. More than three thousand films were filmed there; more than fifty of them won Oscars. Julian Comas, Jordi Solé’s pseudonym, writes a tribute to cinema and those studios, which are a marker of the Italian golden years of cinema.

Through Gino, an old man who meets Jerry, a reporter who wishes to write a piece about the studios, we will travel to the Rome of 1957 and will meet the soul of cinema during the shooting of A Farwell to Arms, starring Rock Judson and Jennifer Jones, with all the ups and downs of a business that seems to be always idyllic, but in which nothing is always truly perfect.

At the same time we will share a girl’s aspirations to get a starring role, like many others in her place, but she ends up becoming a costume design assistant. She is pure beauty, but she is shadowed behind the cameras. Gino will be the only one to notice her true beauty. As Guino starts to fall for her, he will face his toughest decision yet: does he want love, or does he want a career in the film business?

CINECITTÀ can still be visited in Rome, although there are constant threats of shutting it down. With this novel we try to pay tribute to it and to pass on to our reader the essence of all the dreams that were locked in that place, and those that managed to fly and that are, today, part of film history.

It’s safe to say that food is an important part of our lives. A varied, balanced diet is what most of us aim for but, because of the life we lead, healthy eating is one of those things we tend to neglect in spite of being aware of its importance. Ada Parellada, writer and the owner of the restaurant Semproniana, just published a book called: LA COCINA SOSTENIBLE (Sustainable Cuisine), which seeks to give visibility to one of the most significant issues nowadays: the amount of food we throw away but could actually still be used.

One day I was leaving the office late, quite late, and I saw that the bakery next to my agency was closing; I also saw the bags of food they were about to throw away and my soul hurt when I thought of all the people that food could feed. I couldn’t help it, I approached the girl and asked her why they wouldn’t give the food to people in need or to a soup kitchen, and she replied that the owners of the franchise had forbidden them to. Before the ban was set, she said, there had been cues of people from the neighbourhood waiting to take that food home, but as soon as her bosses realized what was happening they immediately forbid it because of the poor image it gave. I was stunned, and I still am, because I cannot understand what can lead someone to prioritize ‘image’ over helping someone who doesn’t have anything to eat. Ada told me she wanted to write a book to teach people to reorganize their kitchen and make it more efficient and effective; she wanted to teach people to make use of what they cook, not just what’s left over but also to optimize the food they cook and how they do it. I thought it was a place to start, a first step towards showing families, bakeries and restaurants that there’s no need to toss out so much food.

However, I still had in mind that girl throwing away fresh food, and that ‘monsters’ was the nicest you could call those restaurant and franchise bosses for not thinking about other people. But while reading this book I’ve realized that giving is not easy; I’m sure there’s a lot of owners of food-related businesses that would give away the spare edibles but that aren’t able to, because it demands a certain amount of human resources, logistics and space that many don’t have, and can’t have access to. Social entities lack the capability to store and transport the amount of food that isn’t used, and they also don’t have giant refrigerators to keep it fresh. Therefore, until the Food Security Act changes, there will always be a refusal to give fresh or pre-cooked food away because the provider is responsible in case the edibles they provide cause food poisoning.

As always, laws set the course, and we know changing one in our country is hardly possible; even if it would benefit a lot of people that can’t provide a proper diet for themselves. I understand this situation is like a snake biting its own tail so, for now, a book like this, with which we can learn not to waste food, is a good start. It is also the first complain to this Act, the modification of which would help so many people. So I encourage you to buy it and to put into practice the tips that this excellent cook gives us. And you know they’ll be good because she does think about people and will always do.

This term, the last one for kids at school, is one of the toughest for me. Summer is close but important Fairs are about to take place, lots of trips, and in record time, summer. After Easter’s break, it seems I’ve began a ride on a Ferris Wheel of which I can come out. Sometimes I feel vertigo, even though I am enjoying myself. The roller-coaster that is live is like a Ferris wheel, every lap may be different, unique, and reading a book like SHINRIN YOKU. EL ARTE JAPONÉS DE LOS BAÑOS DE BOSQUE has made me wonder that even the Ferris Wheel does not stop, I can try and slow it down up to the point to be able to enjoy every second of it.

Francesc Miralles and Héctor García, after their massive success with IKIGAI, translated into 40 languages, becoming a BESTSELLER in several countries and selling over 100.000 copies in countries as Turkey and Holland, are publishing a new book together, about the Japanese tendency that will help us seeing how nature improves our mood and eliminates stress and anxiety. It explains the origins of the tradition, how we can apply it in our daily life, especially those who live far away from nature and to whom contacting nature is a hard task. Nature which is able to maintain our balance, to feel we are part of a universe in which calmness, and the pursuit of happiness is possible just by following a set of very simple steps. Isn’t it exactly what we need to know? For those who live close to the sea or mountain, you will be able to learn the benefits it has, just by staring at your surrounding daily; and those who don’t, you’ll discover how to find it, enjoy it. A new book with the author’s trademark which gives us the tools to live longer and better.