Bruno Blog

Writing this blog today is difficult. I want to be positive, and with everything that’s going on these days, it’s hard for me.  Every day when I wake up, I think that all this must have been a dream, that it is not real that we have to be locked up in the house without the possibility of going out. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Besides, our sector has always been weak and it is going to need a lot of strength to be able to get up again. But we have to try. We cannot let ourselves be defeated. On a more positive note, I am sure that this situation is serving to recover readers, as many will have taken advantage of the confinement to rediscover the pleasure of reading. After all, a book accompanies you and allows you to travel to other worlds without having to move from home.

This blog always recommends the latest news but, due to changes in the programming of publishers, I prefer to recover titles that are already in bookstores and that can help people to have a better quarantine. I know that there are many parents who have young children at home, that’s why in today’s blog I want to recommend three readings that you can share with your children:

TALES TO LOVE YOURSELF MORE (Àlex Rovira and Francesc Miralles): In this book, Àlex Rovira and Francesc Miralles emphasize how important it is to cultivate values in children. With 35 stories that make up this book, they teach us how to cultivate this power from childhood, awakening the imagination, humor, love and acceptance of what each person is and how they are.

TALES FOR HAPPY KIDS (Àlex Rovira and Francesc Miralles): In this book we find 35 stories that teach us that values are the compass of life. Thanks to them, we can overcome adversity, make better decisions and be happier. Responsibility, trust, humility and cooperation are just some of the values that children and adults must learn to cultivate. In summary, strong values are the key to a better life.

LA VUELTA AL AÑO EN 365 CUENTOS (Àlex Rovira and Francesc Miralles): La Vuelta al año en 365 cuentos is a wonderful book for all parents to have the possibility to explain a story to their children. I am sure that many of you will enjoy reading this book as a family. 

I always recommend visiting bookstores, but this time I advise you to get the books through digital platforms or the publishers’ own websites. I know it will be difficult, but together we will manage to get out of this situation. For the moment, it’s time to stay home and read. Thank you.  

After his latest novel, LA MUJER QUE NO SABÍA LLORAR (The Woman Who Couldn’t Cry, published by Columna/Destino), Gaspar Hernández returns to the bookstores with LA LLIBERTAT INTERIOR (Inner Freedom, published by Columna/Diana). In this new book, between the essay and the diary, the author explains that true freedom is inner freedom and that through it we can achieve happiness.

How can we be free? Gaspar tries to answer this question by giving us some guidelines that will help us achieve this goal. Based on what the great psychologists and spiritualists have said, this book dismantles the obstacles that prevent us from being free, such as fear, our daily thoughts and the demands that we have on ourselves. If I had wanted to underline the important quotes in the book, it would have been all painted orange, since everything this author writes would have to be framed in order to remember it always. I think it is important to make a special mention of one of the sentences at the beginning of the book: “Today I know that thought serves to think about life, not to live it“. I think it’s an excellent quote because we all need to be aware of the thousands of thoughts that make us anxious. The present moment is the only space of freedom we have. 

LA LLIBERTAT INTERIOR is a great gift. Gaspar Hernández, with a close tone, explains to us that, as much as it may seem impossible, freedom without limits is within everyone’s reach. We only need to discover who we really are, as this way we can be freer and, consequently, happier. Thank you, Gaspar, for these useful words and for making us see that we cannot continue to live limited by our thoughts.

I’ve always thought that living through a war must be a very hard experience. We, fortunately, have not lived through one. My grandmother, still alive at 96, has explained to us several times what it meant for her to live through a complicated period like the Civil War. She has always made me think that you can’t really have an idea of what a war is if you haven’t lived through one. Víctor Amela, in his new book NOS ROBARON LA JUVENTUD (They stole our youth, published by Plaza & Janés in Spanish and Rosa dels Vents in Catalan), has wanted to make his own tribute to all those young people who were called up during the Civil War.

This generation of young people was known as “la Quinta del Biberón”, and many of them were not even eighteen years old when they lost their lives in the cruel Battle of the Ebro. The survivors of this war eventually ended up in prisons and jails, in concentration camps or in disciplinary battalions. All of them kept forever the terrible memory of that war in which they fought with espadrilles and without cartridges.

NOS ROBARON LA JUVENTUD presents a great work of investigation that the author has carried out in an excellent way. Amela has compiled the valuable witness of twenty-five survivors to reconstruct in this book the memory of these boys who were forced to give up their youth. In this way, the author has created an incredible human story that pays homage to all the anonymous heroes of the Quinta del Biberón on time to celebrate the centenary of the events. We hope that books like these will make us think about the past and not allow another generation to lose their youth.

There are coincidences that make life a little more beautiful. This happened to me recently with the author of APPLETOWN (Pagès Editors), David Marín. I remember perfectly how one day Sebastià Bennasar, a great crime novelist from the agency, recommended me to read a book by David that I liked very much. In time I realized that the David Marín I had just read was the same David Marín I met during my teenage years during a stay in Enviny. That’s how life has given us a new opportunity to resume our friendship through literature. 

APPLETOWN, the latest book by David, presents Marcel Riera, a journalist from Lleida who is involved in an investigation into a murder plot. As the story gets more complicated, Marcel starts writing a crime novel with the aim of conquering the beautiful Sonia. However, the confusion begins when the two planes of reality converge into one and the story becomes a winding road full of surprises. This is a genuine, addictive and very well worked novel.  Its careful language and perfectly constructed structure make the rhythm agile and the novel flows from beginning to end without any difficulty. Without a doubt, one of the most original points of the work is the metallurgical factor, it is incredible how David manages to interweave the two stories in such a natural and elegant way.

Starting this literary relationship with David Marín has been a real honor. I want to thank him for having trusted me as a guide in the world of letters. I really hope to get international publishers to look at him and want to read him, because I think he is an author with an unquestionable quality and still has a lot to do, say and explain. You can’t miss this addictive book.

BRUNO’S BLOG

STORIES BETWEEN FICTION AND REALITY

There are coincidences that make life a little more beautiful. This happened to me recently with the author of APPLETOWN (Pagès Editors), David Marín. I remember perfectly how one day Sebastià Bennasar, a great crime novelist from the agency, recommended me to read a book by David that I liked very much. In time I realized that the David Marín I had just read was the same David Marín I met during my teenage years during a stay in Enviny. That’s how life has given us a new opportunity to resume our friendship through literature.  

APPLETOWN, the latest book by David, presents Marcel Riera, a journalist from Lleida who is involved in an investigation into a murder plot. As the story gets more complicated, Marcel starts writing a crime novel with the aim of conquering the beautiful Sonia. However, the confusion begins when the two planes of reality converge into one and the story becomes a winding road full of surprises. This is a genuine, addictive and very well-worked novel.  Its careful language and perfectly constructed structure make the rhythm agile and the story flows from beginning to end without any difficulty. Without a doubt, one of the most original points of the work is the metallurgical factor, it is incredible how David manages to interweave the two stories in such a natural and elegant way.

Starting this literary relationship with David Marín has been a real honor. I want to thank him for having trusted me as a guide in the world of letters. I really hope to get international publishers to look at him and want to read him, because I think he is an author with an unquestionable quality and still has a lot to do, say and explain. You can’t miss this addictive book.

As a literary agent, I have learned that there are professions in which it is essential to have a vocation. In my case, I feel that moving around the publishing world is as beautiful as it is complicated, and that someone who is not motivated enough to work in this sector can quickly back out. It’s interesting to think that the worst thing that can happen in my job is for someone to make a mistake and cause us to lose money. However, when I think of another profession such as medicine, I realize that there it is essential to have a strong vocation. It is important to know how to manage emotions and tensions since the slightest mistake can cost you a life. From this interest in medicine was born LA DOCTORA (“The Doctor”), published by Ediciones B and signed by Sílvia Tarragó, author of EL TIEMPO DE LA LUZ (“The Time of Light”) o EL OBRADOR DE LOS PRODIGIOS (“The Workshop of Wonders”, a work that will soon be published in Germany by Heyne Verlang).

LA DOCTORA is a novel that manages to portray the 1950s, just when the first generation of women began to practice medicine. It was these pioneers who had the courage to want to be doctors in a hostile territory dominated by men. Inspired by the real-life testimonies of female doctors of the time, this novel shows their battle to overcome the misgivings of a society that, thanks to them, is beginning to change. Paloma, Almudena, Pilar and Victoria are the protagonists of this story and together they make up an exciting tale in which medicine is an essential element.

Thanks to the author’s meticulous research, LA DOCTORA manages to build an impeccable story that perfectly portrays the society of the time through some very real and close characters. Without a doubt, the name of Sílvia Tarragó is a guarantee of a good novel.