Bruno Blog

In the 16th century, mysterious disappearances cast fear on the valley’s inhabitants, coinciding with ancient guild rivalries

On a rainy night in 1577, the coal man Domingo Harria left his farmhouse for the Mirandaola ironworks, where its owners, the Plazaola, are waiting for him. Asencia, his wife, discovers the next morning that Domingo has not returned home, and gives the alarm. It is not the first time that someone disappears in the valley; it will not be the last.

After several days without news, Asencia goes to the ironworks looking for some clue about the whereabouts of her husband, but, although they assure her that Domingo never attended the appointment, she is convinced that the Plazaola lie. Their guild has never been reliable.

Years later, when the whole valley seems to have forgotten Domingo, except for Asencia, Jurdana appears in her life: A young woman of unknown origin who not only keeps a great secret, but flees from a past that, sooner or later, she will have to face. She just hopes she doesn’t have to do it alone.

In the Charterhouse of Escaladei a secret is hidden.

Some want to uncover it. Others will shed blood for it.

A gripping historical thriller full of atmosphere, mystery and conspiracies.

Montsant, 2019. The appearance of the corpse of Jaume Folch, patriarch of a wine dynasty in the vicinity of the Charterhouse of Escaladei, puts the forces of order on alert. The victim’s throat had been slit and a symbol engraved with a knife on his chest. The notoriety of the surname and the cruelty shown in the murder demand a quick and discreet investigation, which is assigned to the inspector of the Mossos d’Esquadra Víctor Sanz Gimeno.

Sagi, the nickname by which everyone knows the policeman, along with the young journalist who discovers the body and who always seems to be one step ahead, will not only uncover the rivalries of the deceased’s family, but also a legend about a secret brotherhood that dates back to the 15th century.

In 2012, at the harshest moments of the Greek crisis, the young Rebeca Benveniste is completely alone and on the verge of eviction. His adored nona, his grandmother, has died, and with his studies of Hispanic Philology he cannot find any work to sustain himself. He then decided to travel to the small village of Alpartazgo, in the province of Zaragoza, where his Sephardic ancestors came from over five hundred years ago.

In the end of the 15th century, Vida Benveniste, the daughter of the butcher of the jueria de Alpartazgo, befriends Leonor de Lanuza, who belongs to the most powerful local noble family. Both are intrepid and intelligent and do not accept the constraints that mark them when professing different religions. Their lives will inevitably run through very different beds, but over and above creeds and social impositions their friendship will always prevail, loose with deep feelings.Two vibrant and luminous stories that are intertwined, filled with small and great stories of love, sex, friendship, humor, uprooting and motherhood. Because female friendship and sorority are the driving force of our lives.

En 2012, en los momentos más duros de la crisis griega, la joven Rebeca Benveniste se queda completamente sola y está al borde del desahucio. Su adorada nona, su abuela, ha fallecido, y con sus estudios de Filología Hispánica no logra encontrar ningún trabajo para mantenerse. Decide entonces viajar al pequeño pueblo de Alpartazgo, en la provincia de Zaragoza, de donde salieron sus antepasados sefardíes hace más de quinientos años. Entre su escaso equipaje lleva la llave que ha ido pasando de generación en generación y que probablemente abre la puerta de la casa que su familia tuvo que abandonar.

A finales del S. XV, Vida Benveniste, la hija del carnicero de la judería de Alpartazgo, se hace amiga de Leonor de Lanuza, perteneciente a la más poderosa familia noble local. Ambas son intrépidas e inteligentes y no aceptan las limitaciones que les marca el profesar distintas religiones. Sus vidas correrán inevitablemente por cauces muy distintos, pero por encima de credos e imposiciones sociales siempre prevalecerá su amistad, surcada de profundos sentimientos.

Dos relatos vibrantes y luminosos que se van entrelazando, llenos de pequeñas y grandes historias de amor, sexo, amistad, humor, desarraigo y maternidad. Porque la amistad femenina y la sororidad son el motor de nuestras vidas.

After Verlaine’s death, the poem that Rimbaud gave him, La chasse spirituelle, travelled from France to Reus, and from Reus to Móra la Nova, where it remained secretly under a floor tile of Esteve’s family oil mill. Luis Esteve was commissioned by his grandfather Antoni to be the secret curator of the poem, a poem that is in fact a grimoire, as Verlaine had insinuated with “sharp psychological intuitions” and “strange mysticisms.” In the course of the novel we will discover how Rimbaud wrote the poem and the rest of his journey.

Halfway between the literary thriller and the historical setting novel, El misteri d’Arthur Rimbaud offers a series of chapters that the reader can read according to the order offered by the author or the one he owns decides.