Bruno Blog

For those of us who have always liked books, I am almost sure that we have read THE FAMOUS FIVE, THE TWINS AT ST.CLARE’S, PUK or the entire TINTÍN collection. These books, even today, are still alive, and the new generations are hooked on them, so I wonder if there is a magic formula to make them timely. I do not have the answer, if I did, the publishing world would lose all its magic. However, what I am sure of is that the formulas of these publishing phenomena are replicated, modernized and that they work again. It is true that fashions change, and sometimes the most realistic books have been left in the background to give way to fantasy and dystopian worlds, but I think that those novels, with which children can identify themselves with, have something that engages them. As is the case with STRANGER THAN LOVE, published by Edebé, and signed by Francesc Miralles, an author who knows how to connect with the younger audiences, despite the fact that his recent successes have been in non-fiction books for adults. Francesc has always had a space for the youngest public and by winning the Gran Angular prize with A HAIKU FOR ALICE he opened a path among the youngest that he finished off with his work RETRUM, a super-seller, among many other works, because he has always bet on literature for the younger readers when many were treating it as second division. Therefore, I am delighted that a publisher like Edebé has published STRANGER THAN LOVE, a novel that recovers the value of friendship, the summer camps with friends, the discovery of love, to know how important it is to fit in or not in today’s society, and the adventures, paying tribute to one of the series of the Netflix platform that has been most successful among teenagers and adults, STRANGER THINGS. With that retro touch that made those of our generation fall in love with it, and also fans of the Goonies, the series managed to be a leader among all audiences and cultivate the fan phenomenon, something that Miralles already achieved with RETRUM, making a tribute to the Gothic world. I hope that a new success awaits for him with this beautiful novel, where the protagonist Nemrod knows what it is like to feel different and takes refuge in his room, a museum dedicated to his favorite series. But when he learns that there is a themed camp called Strange Camp, he doesn’t hesitate to do anything he can to raise the money to go there that summer. Overcoming his fears, he will find the beginning of many things and will have to face something stranger than a Monster. I am sure that Miralles will not disappoint you with this novel that I read in only one weekend and that left me with an amazing feeling in my heart. In short, it is a powerful story for young audiences of 12 years old and older.

Autumn has come. This autumn, like spring and summer, is rare and atypical, but it comes loaded with fear, since almost the majority of humanity fears him, because for months we have been hearing that it will be the most horrible autumn in history. Poor autumn, it seems that nobody wants it to arrive, that nobody expects it, but the reality is that it has arrived. There is no one capable to stop time, not even the damn virus, so I thought that the best alternative I have would be to go live in a parallel fantasy world. Just like the main character of the book by Sacha Azcona, SPLENDIDA, who decides to flee to a fantasy world to avoid being next to her horrible aunt Evilia. In this new world she will live an exciting adventure with some very special friends like the Giant of vegetables, Magical trees, the Tooth fairy and even the Bogeyman. However, Splendida is not afraid of anything, and together with his friends they will defeat the terrible Monsieur LeChug, who boycotted farmers so that vegetables were bad and no child in the world would like them. Splendida will return to London and will have the recognition she deserves, although it won’t last for long, since almost nobody believes that a girl with four fantastic beings can discover the tricks of LeChug, but Splendida learns, grows and loves the books that she shares with others in order to make them happy. She knows what she has lived and when she is in the forest she always feels the magic again when she is caressing the trunks of the trees.
 
A beautiful story, where magic and vegetables are put together in a perfect cocktail of adventures in a book that brings values without falling into morality or boredom.

It is the start of the new school year, the time where we are all trying to come back to “the new normality” but the truth is that most of us have fears. However, we cannot let those fears stop us, we cannot let the fear of what is being told in the streets defeat us. We know that we are living in the middle of a pandemic, and that is the reason why we have to be sensible, we have to try and do things in the right way, but at the same time, we have to learn to live together with this situation in the best way possible, trying to turn the tables. Today my sister has shown me a video that highlights how an alarming headline if deeply analysed can be completely different. That is why we want to encourage you by saying: keep calm and go on, as Alex Rovira and Fernando Trías de Bes would tell us, authors of the bestseller THE GOOD LUCK, with more than 4.000.000 copies sold. This two authors are surprising us this week with their new book, LAS SIETE LLAVES, where they give us the keys to achieve freedom, and that is the only way to truly accomplish happiness in our lives.

In this useful book the authors show us that having success does not mean that we are free, and the secret is not being free in itself but to stop being a slave. The authors prove us that we get to our essence by discard, and in rejecting all the things that we do not want in our lives, we will finally achieve happiness. The ability to say NO is the ability to say YES to your life. In order to obtain that state you will have to break the chains that limit you and these authors give us the seven keys that will help us fulfil our goal, which is to live according our principles and desires. Moreover, “the mystery of the seven keys” will accompany us throughout the book, a story that will take us in a journey of liberation in order to live according to our essence.

I would love to finish this blog with a quote that has charmed me: “The denial of what denies us is what affirms us”. This quote is a huge reflection and a difficult one to process at the same time, but it has so much sense and it gives us a true lesson about what is life. You can all find LAS SIETE LLAVES in the bookstores!

We start the season with a long-awaited and special recommendation. Albert Villaró returns, an author that many of you were waiting for. This new work, Made in Villaró, has once again an impeccable literary style and this time presents us with a commercial theme with a historical background. Those of you who fell in love with ELS AMBAIXADORS (Premi Pla 2014) will be caught up in the story of LA COMPANYIA NÒRDICA (Columna), his new novel.

I openly admit that, at the beginning, when Albert was talking to me about his new project, I couldn’t really understand what it was about. This is what happens when the writer has his work in his head, but only he has it clear. Nevertheless, once you have read it, you perfectly understand this incredible world that the author has developed. Besides, you get hooked in an addictive way until its end.

Here I leave you with a small summary of this novel, which is already among the best sellers and has only been in bookstores for a couple of weeks. 

An archivist finds W. Urlich’s diary in a lady’s garage. This manuscript is the story told in LA COMPANYIA NÒRDICA, modified and ordered by its editor, the archivist himself. We are in 1837, in the middle of the Carlist war in Spain. Urlich is a young Prussian who comes to the country to fight for the Carlist cause, escaping from a legitimate murder, committed in a duel. The young man decides to go and fight in Catalonia, far from the court, and crosses the border into Andorra with a smuggler. When he reaches the camp of the Carlist troops he is sent to “solve a delicate matter”, which requires someone with studies. The situation is as follows: a mail convoy has been intercepted and all the soldiers killed. The liberals accuse the Carlists, but they assure that they have not been killed. Urlich arrives on the scene and meets his fellow expeditionaries: Mina and Osinalde. They all come from different sides, but a sort of truce is signed in order to investigate the case.

The magic and the music will be the two important points in this story to discover the mystery. Villaró surprises us again with a masterfully written text and with a mixture of genres so well done that it is difficult to label and explain. However, once you start reading LA COMPANYIA NÒRDICA, you can’t stop.

This is going to be a different summer.  We hope that the books will not be lacking at our side and that they will help us to rest these weeks to face the next autumn. We close this July 31st and reopen on August 31st.  In the meantime, my mail will remain active. Although we all need a break to recover our strength, this year I can’t stop working, I can only slow down a little to be able to think about that uncertain future in which the books can’t be missing. I hope you have a summer full of smiles, friends, good conversations, ice cream and, above all, books.  On the website you will find our latest news, I hope you choose one of our titles to accompany you this summer of 2020, which will be marked by many aspects. 

I take advantage of today’s blog to remind you that we continue with our campaign LA LITERATURA ALIMENTA, because for hunger there are no holidays and there are many families who need our help to have a hot dish a day. With a small contribution we can do a lot for these families who struggle to survive daily. Click here and help us to help.