Bruno Blog

We’ve all come back from the holidays, and we’ve all returned to our routine and schedules. That translates into the fact that another year has come and gone and I feel like I’m getting older, because it gets harder every year to go back to normalcy. However, this also means that I’m enjoying everything that I do, and so I’ve made the most of the summer and loved every second of it. Maybe that’s why returning to “school” is hard, but when I stepped into the agency, went into my office, and saw my bookcase filled with successful book and heaps of them waiting to be published this autumn – waiting to become great sellers-, my adrenaline kicked in and I thought: how lucky I am to be working in something that truly speaks to me and makes me happy. So, I put away the nostalgia I had felt and I thought that I have to keep enjoying every second, with whatever it brings, be it the new books of the season or the smell of autumn.

The first book I want to recommend to you is special for many reasons, the first one being because her author, Coia Valls, is one of the best writers I have the pleasure to represent. She’s also one of the best people I know and that I can call friend, and this book -a small gem- deals with a topic that she’s clearly passionate about: empathy. This works wonders for her, as she’s also one of the most emphatic people I know.

However, having empathy isn’t easy, nor it is to define what exactly empathy is. The most accepted definition would be: TO KNOW HOW TO PUT YOURSELF IN SOMEBODY’S SHOES. Have you ever thought how many times have you ever truly done that? It’s a very interesting thought, because there are jobs, such as mine, in which almost every day I have to put myself in someone else’s shoes and try to understand why they do what they do -let me assure you that it’s not easy, but it’s very fulfilling. Coia’s book, called SI TÚ ME ESCUCHAS (‘If you listen to me’), has reminded me of what it is that I do every day. A good friend, also a writer, once told me that without having empathy I couldn’t be an agent and, maybe, he’s right.

John Cavage is the typical successful American man: a young family father with an amazing job, who has overcome any obstacle that life has thrown at him without having to ask for anything to anyone, without having to empathize with other people’s miseries. But the foul play of a colleague who wants his position leaves him without a job and that will force him to look beyond himself. When John is pushed to accept a job as a commercial to maintain his family, he realizes his lack of empathy nullifies him as a person, that there’s something lacking in all his relationships. Luckily, a friend of his will tell him about a mysterious course, done via regular post that will change his life. Stepping into someone else’s shoes opens up a window that maybe you’d have never opened otherwise. To try to understand who you’ve got in front you is a pending task for most of us, and it takes work, but it can be highly satisfying as well. Therefore, this treasure that Coia has to offer to us is the ideal book with which you can treat yourself. Give it, as well, to those who you truly love, because it’s a life lesson, beautifully written by an author who never forgets the most important thing: to smile to her readers. Happy reading!

We all have dreams we would like to see come true, and we all have dream we think are impossible, but there they are, they’re dreams and since dreaming is free, why not think that dream could someday come true? Like Coia Valls tells and shows us in her last book; “Nothing is written in the stars”. I’m of the kind of people who think that if you have a dream you must fight for it, even if it’s hard. It can go right or wrong but you will surely learn along the way, because fighting for what one thinks and wants is never easy, but what’s for sure is that it’s enriching. Therefore, let’s let our imagination fly and let’s not rule out anybody’s hopes or dreams. A lot of dreams are about doing something special, different, a trip or an adventure.  There are very few who go and do it, but those who do, are strengthened.

In the case of the main character who gives life to the new book by Coia Valls, who publishes again this year, a novel with a fascinating female character, already a fingerprint of the house. ETHERIA, a wellborn woman from Gallaecia and  member of Emperor Teodisio’s family, in the period of the IV century, where pagans and christians are confronted, he decides to start a trip towards Holy Land after a dream and she writes a diary to transmit her experience to her disciples. Nevertheless her dream is not how she’d imagined or hoped, dreams are unpredictable, and that might be their magic. She encounters Irene Avelada, a patrician who seems to be fighting for a noble cause but really seeks revenge, and will force the pilgrim to make unseen decisions and to face her own contradictions. A tribute to tolerance, to friendship and to the capability of turning a trip into a life experience.

I’m sure many of you have read about fascinating experiences and trips, but you can’t miss the chance to get to know this pilgrim, from the IV century, when we can’t forget life was very different and women played a very important role in society. Nevertheless, Coia always finds that hero that makes us feel strong when we finish the novel, who takes one more step in her literary career, and who makes us even more of her admirers, since she’s one of my day to day heroes.