Bruno Blog

An epic novel about an unknown episode in the history of Catalonia: the revenge of the Catalan Almogavars against the powerful Byzantine empire.

The Kingdom of Aragon, at he end of the 13th century – beginning of the 14th. Marc Amorós, a young man from an Almogavar family, prominent warrior and passionate about letters and history, makes contact with Ramon Muntaner, Almogavar, rational master of the Catalan Company and chronicler, who finally names him his personal assistant.

It is history in the first person, specifically the episode known as “the Catalan revenge”: a period of merciless revenge that is still remembered nowadays in the ancient territories of the Byzantine empire.

Les dones sàvies de la muntanya is the prodigious adventure of two herbalists in heroic times

In the middle of the 19th century, many women in the valleys of Vansa and Tuixen (northern Catalonia), undertook long journeys on foot across the Catalan lands. These brave and intrepid women — the herbalists — left the valleys to complement their home economies by selling all kinds of herbs, oils and mountain produce. Those were natural remedies with medicinal properties that only they knew, thanks to their ancestral popular mountain culture.

Guided by Dolors and Sofia, grandmother and granddaughter, we will experience the fascinating adventure of two herbalists across all Catalonia — their hopes and fears, the friendship, love and dangers they faced during their journeys.

Urgídar, a Young Iberian from Lesera, arrives to Rome the year 12 BC with the intention of training as an orator and poet. There he meets Ovid, whom he befriends, and witnesses the creation of his “Ars Amatoria”. With that book, the Roman thinker revolutionized marital relations, and challenged Augustus’s marriage laws against adultery.

This is the story of an initiation, one Urgídar endures among slaves, poets, spies, brothels, market stalls, baths, circuses, palaces, gardens, parties, orgies, conspiracies, attempts, poisonings, exiles, sea journeys, islands, magic rituals … and a dangerous scheme to take over the Empire.

Augustus’ ambition, Livia’s poisons, Julia’s orgies, Tiber’s patience, and Ovid’s games—who will finally be accused of being a “doctor adulterii”—weave a historical plot around the origins of modern eroticism.

This novel reveals how Ovid’s erotic poetry turned the Rome of Augustus upside-down –who died exactly 2000 years ago–, and why the most influential poet of all times was exiled.

Barcelona, 1771. Young Constança Clavé leaves the faraway city of Lima after the death of her father, a diplomat at the service of viceroy Manuel de Amat. Her journey to Barcelona is long and arduous. She carries with her vivid memories of landscapes, flavours, textures, and a single possession: the recipe book left to her by her first Master in the Peruvian Court, the chef Antoine Chapel.

In Barcelona, Constança dreams of becoming a great cook. Being a woman, however, will close many doors for her. In spite of this, she makes her way through the streets of the tumultuous city with passion and courage. She progresses among people who cry for revolution, and those who attend much finer venues: a sphere of power populated by extraordinary characters, such as the one who came to be considered the first gastronome of his time: the Baron of Malda.