Bruno Blog

There are moments in life where you’d like to run away. Leave everything behind and flee from a present that you don’t like, that it isn’t what you want. However, there aren’t many brave people who dare to break free from everything and pursue their dreams, their wishes, their freedom. I’m an example of that. I’m not brave enough to run away without a clear goal –I guess because I don’t have an acute need to do so. However, I learn each day that when one is convinced of what they do and why they do it, everything flows way better, although the path to put it into practice is long, hard, and needs some time to mature.

It’s difficult to change suddenly what you’ve learnt or have been imposed since you were a kid, but not for the protagonist of Cari Ariño’s latest novel, Alicia, who after suffering a heartbreak, she goes to France searching for the grandfather she never met. She’s brave and breaks free from her life in order to carry on and move forward. There, she’ll meet Julien, a bohemian tour guide, who will put her in contact with Baptiste, who’ll tell Alicia about his past as an exiled. The story of the three characters will connect with the mystery of Biel, a missing anarchist after the escape of the Spanish Civil War losers. Biel gave up the love of his life and his daughter (another difficult decision, I don’t know if it’s brave or not, but it is indeed a complicated one). Alicia and Julien like each other, but the past they start discovering will test them, a test on which their future will depend.

A heartfelt novel that hooks you and makes you fall in love with these brave characters, who are kind of long-distance runners –which we all are, more or less, in this life–, and that move towards truth, forgiveness, and the discovery of one’s self. These three things are, most of the time, hard to understand, but love and hope can heal mistakes and wounds from the past.

Cari Ariño moves a step forward with this second novel, because although the story has an historical background very interesting, the plotline and the characters are what keep you at the edge of your seat, which makes that this book is perfect for readers of historical books and anyone who enjoys a brave story, well written and with HUGE characters, that hold your hand and don’t let you go until the very end. Her first novel, EL LATIDO DEL TIEMPO, was already a big success, and with this second novel, LA RUEDA DEL OLVIDO, her readers will be even more loyal to her and will catch newer ones, without a doubt.

Congratulations Cari, a great novel for this Sant Jordi (Saint George’s day).

Every time I go to my parents’ house I have the urge to grab the family albums from when we were kids, and I could spend hours going through them and remembering each moment. Nowadays we carry our phones everywhere and we take pictures that are never where they should be, as some of them are lost, some stay in the computer, classified by dates, and almost no one has the time to organize them, like we did before, and we don’t have these albums that are great memories of a life, and that we would all love to have in our shelves, just like my parents do. The power of new technologies doesn’t help us to move ahead in many things, but we’re the ones that should maintain and keep this most nostalgic part that we all have, and it’s hard, because days and months fly by. I’ve got the feeling that someone is stealing the hours of my day because I’ve got so many things left to do from the long lists that I do on the weekends and that I should follow through from Monday to Friday, that I laugh at myself when Saturday arrives once again and I start the list of everything that I’d love to do, while the thief of time looks at me square in the eye and starts running ahead of me.

In literature, there are few novels that talk about photography, another art, and EL OBJETIVO DEL CRIMEN, the novel that Xulio Ricardo Trigo has just published with Ediciones B, both in Catalan and in Spanish, is one of those novels that hook you not only because they’re well written by an author with a great profession, but because Xulio has created a character, Erika, with such charisma, so interesting, that you’ll want to know more and more about this woman. At only twelve-years-old, right when the II World War ended, Erika was kidnapped along with her mother and two hundred more people by the Russian army, because they were working in the Contax camera factory and the soviets thought that only with technicians and German workers they’d manage to set in motion the manufacturing of a Contax replica, the Kiev camera. Many years later, in 1961, when the world shudders with the first news about the making of the Berlin Wall, Erika travels to Barcelona as a member of the German police to help with the investigation of the murder of two of her compatriots. These remind her about the methods of her kidnappers and the terrible moments she lived as a teen. With the help of inspector Casajoana, she’ll try to find out the reason why everything has begun again and what lies behind these murdered young woman, that bring her once again to her most hostile past, which she’d really want to forget.

An inspiring crime story based on the life of photographer Erika Ernemann and set in the world of classical photographic cameras. A literary work that hooks you because of the story and the beauty of the union of two wonderful worlds, such as literature and photography. Perfect for all readers of the mystery/historical genre and for those who aren’t, because with an astonishing voice, Xulio tells a story that is appealing however you look at it and that will hardly disappoint anyone. Congratulations for this novel that has managed a clear goal: to give a step forward.

14th Century, medieval times and Barcelona, are three words that bring me good memories. One of the first successes of the Agency had these three main ingredients, and now that the Agency is turning 15 years old, I look back and CATHEDRAL OF THE SEA is still the book that has set a before and after for me. Now they say that there will be a second part and the truth is that it’s sad for me to know and not be able to be involved, but that’s what the life of the agent is like. The loyalty of the authors depends on a lot of things, and even if the intention is always to have a long relationship, it’s not always the case.

However every time there’s a new book, the thrill is great, and that’s what happened to me with LA FILLA DE LILITH by Glòria Sabaté, who talks about medieval Barcelona and all its many curiosities. With characters that are truly well outlined, and with various mysteries to discover, Glòria invites us to read a historic novel with a mysterious murder and the fears and superstitions the people had at the time and that even touched some of their lives. An addictive novel, and very well written, which is an excellent premiere by an author that has promise. And I hope that our relationship is long and successful, since I started with the three magic words, and magic, like she says in her novel, lives among us and exists in different shapes. It’s a good start, with no doubt, in every way.

Some of us want to believe that LOVE can save a lot of things. I’ve always thought that love has a lot of shapes, there are different ways of loving, but with love, you can achieve your goals. People who believe that giving love to others, they make the world better, I think they’re completely right. Nevertheless, the human race is so selfish that hardly anyone shows love without asking for something in exchange, and in the end that’s what makes LOVE in big letters fail in some occasions. Giving without receiving is love in its purest state, but let’s think of who really applies it to their daily life, every day. Do we?

Care Santos, in her trilogy Eblus (Ediciones B in Spanish), shows us that love is the only thing that stops the worst and most dangerous creature in history. The devil himself will run into something he wasn’t expecting: love. Natalia will be the only obstacle that he’ll find in his long trail of evil, and his obsession with her will end up driving him crazy. Will love beat evil? A historic battle that Care Santos forcefully throws into the ring so nobody will want to stop reading this trilogy that will show us a family’s curse, which will scar the lives of the Albás’ families, and of which they don’t know how to escape. The truth of the curse is only known by Eblus, a devil who doesn’t forget nor forgive, but who’s more human than he wants to confess in some things. Care publishes three excellent novels once again, majestic, and in which there’s a lot of reflection wrapped in adventure. An A+ for this author, who doesn’t stop surprising us, and who made me think that there may be a lot like Eblus in our society, but that we can beat them if we want. Me, I do. And you?