Bruno Blog

These days there is an advertisement on TV that when I hear it, I love it. It is for the 75th anniversary of El Corte Ingles. A great nostalgic music that makes me think of when I was little, my grandmother who used to sew and made us great costumes, and wool sweaters, which itched me everywhere, but now I remember it fondly. I have never liked big stores, I have always defended the small neighborhood shop in front of the big monsters, but I like the ad and I confess that several times to go shopping in department stores has bailed me. However, small shops which survive, who defend their business every day, are the ones that I admire. And some of them started from nothing and now are big stores, big-name and centenarians.

This is the case of Santa Eulalia store in Barcelona, ​​which Núria Pradas has fictionalized the fantastic story of a family that despite the difficulties, has managed to reinvent itself and endure. The novel SUEÑOS A MEDIDA (Suma de Letras), and in Catalan, SOMNIS A MIDA (Columna) is a fascinating story of a family business that faces the challenges of haute couture, in a society that is heading towards a war. A shop where everything is possible. An entrepreneurial dream, two women marked by the same love, the friendship and the first fashion shows in the city. Glamour, love, elegance and a dream. Thus we witness the birth of the first collection of Santa Eulalia, his first fashion parade, its international projection and its transfer to Paseo de Gracia. With Laia, the daughter of one of the seamstresses of the fashion house, we will visit Barcelona in the 20s and the 30s and we meet characters who take us to decisive moments in the history of the city and the world fashion.

Barcelona’s great novel of this Sant Jordi for any generation.

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.