Bruno Blog

The world as we know it has managed to impress me. I have always thought the world moves in one direction and I in the opposite one. I sometimes feel as the “weirdo” because I don’t understand many of the things that are happening, at all levels. I understand that if we were to start discussing political problems in the world we would never come to an end. Personally, however, I can barely understand what is going on here, nor anywhere out there, but sometimes I struggle to understand reactions, everyday situations that I would face in a very different way from what most people seem to do. I think we are losing important values like trust and honesty, fidelity and compromise. I do not wish to generalize, it’s never good to do so, but I have recently lived such scenarios, where all those values are lacking, in the flesh. And I must say that it makes me profoundly sad. It is precisely then that I allow myself to be carried away with my thoughts, that take me straight to books. I would not have it any other way. Now I am lead into another world and I try to believe in a parallel universe, maybe the one that Sónia Fernandez-Vidal, one of my greatest authors, is trying to tell me about. The quantum world.

I would like to cross the Door and walk into another place, where things had a different explanation. The physical one might not be the one to help me, in this case, but Nico, the main character of Sónia’s first book LA PUERTA DE LOS TRES CERROJOS, already had an adventure in this parallel world. It captivated teenagers and sold more than 250.000 copies when science fiction books were not a trend, just like now. A huge record that has lead Planeta to publish a second title, LA SENDA DE LAS CUATRO FUERZAS with a new adventure awaiting for Nico, where he tries to reunite with his friends from the other side, but isn’t able to. The entrance to the quantum world is gone until Quinoa, his quantum fairy, comes seeking his help. The laws of physics are out of control and it will be Nico’s and his friends duty to reestablish the balance. In this new quantic adventure Nico will face tests from each and every one of the forces that reign in our universe.

LA PUERTA DE LOS TRES CERROJOS and LA SENDA DE LAS CUATRO FUERZAS are two extraordinary books with science as the back scenario in order to introduce us to the quantum world, which is not easy, but appears to be so in the books. The magic of a special, intelligent author, named one of the most creative minds in the world by Forbes, turns difficult into easy, and boring into thrilling. Can we ask for more from a book for our teenagers? Understanding the world of the intangible is a step forward, and today, perhaps, having an open mind and getting back the lost values is a true necessity.

I confess that, ever since I was a little kid, I’ve liked romantic movies and books, even those that were a tiny bit cheesy –I was addicted to romantic relationships that seemed impossible, and that always ended up being possible. Typical stories that reminded me of the classic Romeo and Juliet; love stories between two different social classes, like Pretty Woman, or the typical story about a nerdy girl who isn’t that pretty and falls in love with the bad handsome guy of her class. How many stories like that have we read and seen? We do it over and over again, because we love them and because there are many lovers of love, and these stories keep moving us.

That’s why this week I have the pleasure to recommend a novel that follows this pattern, a modern Romeo & Juliet set in our century and written by a really young author, Paula Amor, whose novel has managed to be #1 in Amazon for several weeks already. Planeta has decided to publish it under the name PEDAZOS DE TI (‘Pieces of you’) and it tells a love story that shouldn’t have been…but that it was. That kind of love that you never forget in life and that we love reading, especially in summer, when everything is amusing and full of possibilities.

Devil and Abbie shouldn’t have met, they weren’t meant for each other, but Devil owned Abbie something that could only be paid with his whole life, so when the opportunity came up, she was more than ready to claim it. Abbie, the perfect little girl with braided hair, responsible, sensible, typical and inoffensive nerd. Who would suspect her? Devil? The bad guy, of leather jacket and trousers, leader of a rock band, addicted to everything destructive, including empty relationships.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to discover this author who has written a modern West Side Story that will hook young readers who, like me, keep enjoying this kind of stories where love always wins. A light read, very summery, by someone whose dream came true when this novel was published. We hope that she can continue to do so, because she’s got magic.

This book is, once again, special to me, because I’ve got a personal story with the author and this turns it into one of those that adds up to your life. To me, working with Alba hasn’t been work, but a huge pleasure —meeting her has been one of the most magical things that have happened to me in the past few months. When I received an e-mail signed with the name ‘Hope’ —which already raised my interest—, I thought that it was a person that had many things to say. And, precisely, that’s what happened. Even though we receive many e-mails from authors that want us to help them with their manuscripts, we have to reject them because we cannot take that much work: we wouldn’t be helpful to them, on the contrary. However, Hope’s mail caught my attention and I went to her blog to read what she wrote: I discovered a fresh voice, different and solid, that made me go to the city of Blanes, to her house, in order to meet her. That’s not what I usually do, but my instinct told me to ‘help’ her make her dream come true. However, Hope is the pen-name of Alba Saskia, a 25-year-old girl who had already written a novel about overcoming personal struggles, and had already earned an open door to the publishing world, as it had been shortlisted for the Planeta Award. They also saw, like me, that behind that novel there was a unique voice, different and very strong.

Alba suffers from a disease that only 80 people over the world have: The Brown Vialetto Van Laere Syndrome, a strange neurodegenerative sickness. But she smiles, she’s a strong and happy woman, with many illusions who led her to write CON UN PAR DE ALAS (already in bookstores). She started to write to be active, because she lost some of her hearing due to her disease, was admitted to the hospital and couldn’t even walk nor eat. Her blog Infinity Hope saved her, along with the unconditional support from her family, which never fails you and is always there, either for better or for worse. Therefore, Alba wrote a wonderful blog and, later on, she dared to write this novel, which was selected among the hundreds of originals that are sent to the Planeta Award and that the editor Lola Gulias couldn’t let go. Nonetheless, Alba let me help her in this journey and, although she had already entered this business, she trusted us and the job we do. After that meeting, unforgettable to me, at her place in Blanes along with her sister —who is a beautiful person and was pregnant at the moment. She even baked us some delicious biscuits to make us feel like home!—, we were all there, my father and even my son, who came with me (and he never does, but everything happens for a reason). This meeting was special for the three of us, and I hope that it also was it for Alba. Now it’s when the long-run race starts, and I hope we can get many readers from all over the world to read this story.

It isn’t a self-help story, but a story about overcoming your own struggles, for all of us who believe there’s always hope. This is Lía’s story, who after living in Tarifa a heart-wrenching love story with Hugo, comes back to Barcelona heartbroken. Her friend Manu welcomes her in and gives her thirty days to put herself back together. In the meantime, Perpetua, Lía’s mother, unaware of her daughter’s drama, keeps sending her letters to Tarifa whilst believing she’s still there. The unconditional help from Perpetua and Manu will be crucial so that Lía can start a new life, especially when María, and old friend with whom she shared years of study in a ballet school, appears and becomes the bridge to build a professional future doing what she loves: dancing. And Marcelo, a handsome water polo player, will be ready to accompany her to this new dance that is her life.

Sometimes, it seems like everything is going wrong, the sky becomes grey and there’s no way we can see the light of the sun once again, but with this novel, where friendship has a key role and, also, the passion to pursue a dream is really present, Alba manages to convey that if you want to, you can do it. That we must never lose hope. That if you do what you want and what you feel, you get where you want to. For this reason, this novel is for any reader, because it brims with HOPE, which is what Alba has tattooed on her skin, and she deftly portrays that in this novel, so well-written, and with such a strong voice, that it won’t leave you indifferent. She’s not ‘another’ writer, but the discovery of a new voice. Congratulations, Alba, for getting to this point, for having let me accompany you in this special adventure in which we’ve just started to spread our wings, because I hope that we can fly together far away, like you deserve, with the soundtrack of the song by Diego Torres, which always makes me think of you.

(In Spanish, the title of this blog post refers to the song by Diego Torres ‘Color Esperanza’)