Bruno Blog

This is our big week. Another Sant Jordi’s Day is upon us and the sector is in turmoil. There is something so special about this day that all of us who make up this long chain feel that tickle in our stomachs as the day of the book approaches. It’s nerves, mixed with excitement and emotion, something difficult to put into words and that only those of us who are part of it have the pleasure of feeling. It is one of the most intense days of the year in every sense, and that is how we all experience it.

I decided to take the opportunity of Thursday’s blog to review the books that will fill the streets this Sunday. Those of you who follow us know that we have a bit of everything, so there is something for everyone, and below you will find a link to our video presenting the most recent releases so that you can take paper and pencil and write down those that catch your eye. They can be for yourselves or for that special person or persons because I hope it will be more than one so that you will have to choose more than one book. This is a family celebration, and we give books and roses to everyone we love: mothers, children, aunts, and grandmothers. Every page of a book makes us bigger and helps us, in some way, to be better.

It is normal that I cannot understand a world without books, they are my life, but I would love it if no one could understand it, and books were the necessary vitamin to make the world a better place. They make us better because with them we live things, things happen, we learn things, and in short, we LIVE. Books are life. So after two 23rd April pandemics, and the last one between hail, rain, and wind, I hope that this Sunday will be sunny, the streets will be packed, and that we all buy more than one book. It can be any book, but if you also choose one of ours, those of the SB team, Sant Jordi couldn’t be better.

Happy Book Day! Here is our link, and don’t forget to follow us on social media to find out where the protagonists of the day, the authors, will be. Come to get their signature and live with us a little piece of this magical day.

Sant Jordi’s signatures of our authors

New titles March 2023

New titles February 2023

New titles January 2023

One of the best days of the year is just around the corner, Sant Jordi, and I must admit those who work in this market are pretty busy- before, during and after-. I must also admit I don’t know anyone of this Publishing world who doesn’t adore this day, who doesn’t have butterflies in the stomach when waking up, who doesn’t smile, who doesn’t feel the excitement about a day in which books themselves are the main characters.

I love waking up early, getting to see how roses and books stands are built, with that characteristic excitement of the day. To smell my wonderful city, Barcelona, all dressed up ready to celebrate. Our party. This year, the Agency will have a stand in the neighborhood where we will go on with our Charity Campaign LA LITERATURA ALIMENTA, and where we will be delighted to recommend the best book for that special person you want to surprise.

This blog has already dealt with many news which are already on sale and we hope reach the top. This year we have a special book, special for the date, a book which Comanegra has amazingly published, as everything they do. Silvia Tarragó is the author of the story, a modern Sant Jordi, in which love and books are the main characters, an amazing detail for all of those who think of books as the best present in the world. A plot in which a Jordi does not enjoy reading at all, but Anna -book fan- will make him fall in love with books… as they fall in love with each other. Simple, short, well developed. It is, with no doubt, the best present for reading lovers, for those who believe in love and those who love Sant Jordi. You should have a book like this one, you must.

They say a picture is word a thousand words, I don’t completely agree, but for those who agree, here we attach our special video for Sant Jordi, full of pictures and words which speak out for themselves. Have an amazing Sant Jordi, and keep on reading, because without books, we would not be what we are.

Sant Jordi’s Day is around the corner one more year, and I can’t stop saying how special it is for anyone who works in this business. A public holiday for readers, and a hard day of work for the publishing sector. At the same time, however, it’s a time for festivities and contained feelings, for you want everything to go smoothly and for each person to buy books they truly enjoy. A day when everything seems extraordinary and books, usually more invisible during the year, are the main event, the KINGS of a wonderful festivity where the communion between reader and author is complete. I don’t have the right words to express what we feel that day when one -or more! – book from the agency appears in the bestsellers lists. It’s an explosion of happiness and joy that you feel for the author, who has worked so hard and deserves the acknowledgement that they long for so much; for the public; for the publisher, who has launched it and has bet blindly for a title that is now succeeding; for the bookseller, who has recommended it… It’s such a long chain, all filled with people who has collaborated to make it possible that, when it works, the feeling you get is one of relief, calmness and unrivalled excitement. It’s an award to the effort and the work well done of an author and of all the others who have supported it.

However, for me, the most important thing on this day is that people feel excited when sharing a book with someone they love and that, with the help of one another, we try for great literature to reach the readers. I’m sure that many of these books, gifted with love, change the lives of whomever gets them. New readers are nurtured and become long lasting ones. Let’s live an intense April 23^rd, full of wonderful feelings, and let’s manage for books to accompany us the rest of the year as well. As we always say in the agency, books are the best travel companions in this journey that we call life, because they always add up, even if it’s something very small and simple. We’re convinced that there’s a book for every reader, and a reader for every book, the exciting part is to strengthen that union that, most of us, can’t live without. Reading is life and life without reading is way poorer, and it’s not difficult to enrich it with good stories that will surely fulfill us.

Happy year of the book and let’s celebrate April 23^rd next year with all the readings that have come along for the ride on this 201/2018 and that have shaped us into better people.

Our recommendations

• Media vida by Care Santos
• Los viejos amigos by Silvia Soler
• La rueda del olvido by Cari Ariño
• El alma de la radio by Angeles Doñate
• Respira, Rebecca, respira... by Bárbara Alves
• Bojos per la música dels 80 by Alfred Picó i David Picó
• El objetivo del crimen by Xulio Ricardo Trigo
• La escritora by Carmen Conde
• El imperio de los leones by Sebastià Bennasar
• Deudas del frío by Susana Rodríguez Lezaun
• Mi nombre escrito en la puerta de un váter by Paz Castelló
• El llibre de veritats i secrets by Ramon Gasch
• Avalon. Britannia 4 by Ana Alonso y Javier Pelegrín
• El ladrón de minutos by David Lozano
• Love in lowercase by Francesc Miralles
• La hija del capitán Groc by Víctor Amela
• Sueños a medida by Núria Pradas
• Etheria by Coia Valls
• El tiempo de la luz by Sílvia Tarragó
• La filla de Lilith by Glòria Sabaté
• Las bocas de la montaña by Isabel del Rio
• El hombre más rico del mundo by Rafael Vídac
• La dieta de los colores by Montse Folch
• Duérmete niño de Eduard Estivill
• Qué beber cuando no bebes by Meritxell Falgueras
• Aporta o aparta by Nika Vázquez Seguí
• Ikigai by Francesc Miralles y Héctor García
• ¿Y tu qué crees? by Eva Sandoval
• Se vende mejor amigo by Care Santos
• El club de los caníbales muerde a Drácula by Gabriel García Oro
• Thirteen Reasons Why de Jay Asher
• Illuminae Expediente_01 by Amie Kaufman y Hay Cristoff
• Love letters to death by Ava Dellaira
• The fault in our stars by John Green
• Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan

It’s Sant Jordi again, it seems like yesterday when we celebrated Book Day 2015, and another one is already knocking on the door. What a special day! It is to lots of people, readers and those who don’t read so much, because it’s a beautiful day, filled with roses and books, where we celebrate the day of love, in high caps, the love for books, also in high caps, and even more so for those of us who work in the publishing world, which captivates and hooks us, but makes us suffer at the same time. The book process has a lot of phases, I won’t go on to explain each one of them today, but in each phase you experience different feelings that you always live intensely, at least I do. The moment an author gives you a new novel, it’s exciting, you have very high expectations, and you want to swallow it. The moment you share that reading with the author, with a cup of coffee, has it’s pros and cons, but a lot of excitement, wanting this to work, and the moment the publisher falls in love with the project, it’s just magic. I can only think about how I will tell that author who will see one of his dreams come true, one of the most beautiful parts of my job.

Another special moment is when you see the cover for the first time, when you give a face and a dress to all that amount of words that made you laugh, suffer, cry, depending on the case, and the final climax, which is the publishing of the book, and what comes later, finding the reader who will also fall in love with the project, which many people have worked hard on, with the effort, will and thrill of a dream.

So a nervous feeling in the stomach for another Sant Jordi where I’m glad to recommend our raging novelties, and ask for a favor: celebrate this day at its most, buy that book that you most feel like reading, no matter which one, because what’s important is to read. But don’t let reading be just a one-day thing, enjoy it all throughout the year because a good book is the best company in this long trip that is life, I have no doubt at all. Happy Sant Jordi to all my colleagues in the sector and to the readers who know that literature feeds.

SUGGESTIONS FOR SANT JORDI FOR…

…the history lovers

• Etheria de Coia Valls
• La montaña maldita de Begoña Garcia Carteron
• La filla de Lilith de Glòria Sabate
• Les veus del Liceu de Xulio Ricardo Trigo

…the dreamers and the ones who are eager about every day

• Sueños a medida de Núria Pradas
• El invierno que tomamos cartas en el asunto de Ángeles Doñate
• Diamante azul de Care Santos
• Un perro de Alejandro Palomas

…the great mystery solvers

• Maldita verdad de Empar Fernández
• Para morir siempre hay tiempo de Carmen Conde
• La vidente de la luna llena de Isabel del Río
• La Bíblia andorrana de Albert Villaró

…the big adventure livers

• La filla del capità Groc de Víctor Amela
• El informe Ahnenerbe de Santi Baró
• El nazi de Siurana de Toni Orensanz
• El cuarto reino de Francesc Miralles

…the realists

• Pont de cendra de Raül Romeva
• La primera estrella de la noche de Nadia Ghulam and Javier Diéguez
• Ni felices ni para siempre de Clay Newman
• La vacuna contra el miedo de Montse Domènech

…the ones who want to achieve their little-huge challenges

• Ikigai de Francesc Miralles and Héctor Garcia (Kirai)
• ¿Y si realmente pudieras? de Pilar Jericó
• No soy de este mundo de Gaspar Hernández
• Shakespeare para enamorados de Allan Percy

…the one who want to get to know the international ‘best-sellers’

• Illuminae Expediente_01 de Amie Kaufman y Hay Cristoff
• Cartas de amor a los muertos de Ava Dellaira
• Bajo la misma estrella de John Green
• Magnus Chase y los dioses de Asgard de Rick Riordan

…the young readers

• Sapere Aude (Trilogia Eblus III) de Care Santos
• L’efecte Calders de Santi Baró
• La filla de l’argenter de Núria Pradas
• La venjança dels panteres negres de Gemma Lienas
• La Reina de cristal de Ana Alonso y Javier Pelegrín
• Por una sonrisa un beso de Moon River

…the little ones at home

• El club de los caníbales se zampa a Don Quijote de Gabriel García de Oro
• El ladrón de las croquetas de Pedro Riera
• Yes we dance 4 El precio de la fama de Esther Sanz
• William de Care Santos

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.