Bruno Blog

Manuela Penarrocha is thirteen years old. Sitting on her low chair in her entrance hall, she sows sandals like no other. The girl with grey eyes and golden hair thinks of her father. He had taken ones like those to war, like the rest of the Carlists, men of sandals, walking stick, blunderbuss and knife in the belt. She wants to hug him, feel the warmth of his kiss on her forehead. She misses his tough look, now filled with tenderness, his loud laugh. She just wants him to get back to watch him fight for their ideals, to go back to his family and the town, the lost dignity, to life or to death.

Tomàs Penarrocha Penarrocha,her father, is known in Forcall as the Blond, because of his hair color.

<<- Father! I didn’t believe Pep lo Bitxo and it was true! He told me he saw you at the river and I didn’t believe him… Father! Father! In front of his daughter Manuela, who runs towards him, all his thoughts fade. He watches her pink braids dancing on her back. Love tears rolling down the Blond’s cheeks when he hugs the small and light Manuela. The Blond brings her up to the height of his eyes and gives her a kiss. With Manuela in his arms, the Blond knows he’s back home>>.

The novel presents two love stories that happen at two different times. The first in 1993 when Eduard , a singing teacher who is forced to leave his career, discovers Anna, a stuttering girl who cleans the Liceu, but has an amazing voice . Eduard could feel that Anna will return the excitement to the stage.

The second story is related with some notebooks that keeps Irina, Eduard’s mother, where a terrible family secret related to her husband hides . In the world of cafés and nineteenth century Rambla we learn the struggle between “liceistes ” and ” creuats ” ;this rivalry will lead Armand to acts that will lead to terrible consequences.

At the beginning of the 5th century, with the Roman empire practically in shatters, the people in the northern Iberian peninsula, and the tribes, clans and Eurasian nations that have invaded it, are fighting bloodily for supremacy.

The pervading ancient animist cult, and the Celtic religion’s association between spirituality and the forces of nature, as well as sorcery and magic, face the classic deities and, especially, the new Christian faith.

Berardo de Hogueras Altas, from his rich city in the sheltering Cantabrian mountain apex, summons his neighbors and allies to establish a dominion to be defended by a powerful army. They have to face the threat of the Asding Vandals, and the savage Alan parties that devastate the region. They also will defend themselves from the plans of the covetous Hermeric, king of the Suebi, who from his throne in Bracara Augusta intends to take possession of all the peninsular north. Their most fearsome enemies, though, might turn out to be the intrigues for power, and treachery.

Berardo’s call is answered by the brave mountain-dwellers of Gargantas del Cobre, the hunters of the Eione valley, the fierce warriors of Pasos Cerrados … They all know which destiny awaits them: the times of the sword, and legend.

«José Vicente Pascual masters a rich, fluid, and very neat prose, aided by a great wealth of words. He can introduce us skillfully to the setting through a language that transports us into the story from the very beginning.»

Angels Pavía, Hislibris

«The strength of the story, and its lively and swift rhythm, make the reading of this work very agreeable, exciting … It is the result of merging high-brow and entertainment literature, perfectly inscribed in the epic – historical genre.»

Xosé Antonio López Silva, translator and literary critic

«José Vicente Pascual, undoubtedly, is an alchemist of the written word.»

José Manuel García Marín, La Opinión de Malaga

«… one of those novels that you never want to end … Very rarely, in the course of many years as a reader, you come across literary exercises like this author’s.»

Francisco Portela, Un lector indiscreto

El fin de los secretos is a story of power, politics, finance, and passions in the beginnings of banking

On November 10, 1360, in the city of Barcelona, the money exchanger Francesc Castelló is beheaded on his exchange table, in punishment for insolvency. The economic and financial crisis of the city, the debts of many money exchangers, the missing tablecloths on their tables — symbol of guarantee —, as well as the delay in payment of life annuities and allowances by the council’s treasurer, head of public finances, bothers the citizens. Francesc Castelló is punished publicly as a warning to the insolvent money exchangers, and to calm the distressed population.

While common people suffer the severe aftermath of the plague and the economic and financial crisis, the inhabitants of the Jewish quarter prosper with their “prests” (loans); and while a few privileged classes like the Church and the “honest citizens” are free of tax burden, ordinary people must pay taxes with basic consumer goods like wheat or meat. A family of “honest citizens” from Barcelona, the Gualbes, takes advantage of the crisis and confusion to accomplish their great ambition.

This is a story of power, finance, love and heartbreaks that draws a realistic and critical picture of the city of Barcelona in the Low Middle Ages, mixing historical figures with fictitious characters like the town’s executioner — or “morro de vaques” —; the murdered money changer’s wife; the usurers of the Jewish quarter; Azriela, the most beautiful Jewish woman; Begonya, the quarter’s witch; Guaspa, the Gualbes’ moor slave; or Ferrer de Gualbes himself, councilor and the family’s strong man.

This is a story from the past that projects onto the present.

Envies, treacheries and the power of love meet in “Forbidden Love” by way of its fascinating characters.

The most personal novel by Coia Valls. An unforgettable love story between a priest and the daughter of a rural nobleman, in 15^th century Catalonia.

During the first third of the 15^th century, Catalonia is starting to recover from a period of famine and epidemics, although fear is still seizing its people. The ground is shaking more than ever before, and the valley of Camprodon is the epicenter of this hell.

Amid the great bleakness that ravages the area, a love story blooms between a priest and the daughter of a rural nobleman. While they struggle against an oppressive society and their most inner contradictions, they build a safe haven under the protection of Saint Valentine’s relics, kept at the monastery of Sant Benet de Bages.