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Bruno Blog

Sandra Bruna Literary Agency

Do we like the world we are building?

Author: Bruno Thursday 16 November 2023

Bea Cabezas’ novel in a dystopian Barcelona, but not too distant (2060) was conceived, according to the author, imagining how her daughter, who has already been raised surrounded by technology, would act as a mother. Thinking how this will affect these new relationships, which are almost all through cell phones, losing dialogue and human contact. The Piano Lesson is a novel that talks about human relationships, but above all about the relationships between parents and children, and it is also an important reflection on motherhood.

One of the main characters, Sara, has just given birth in an abandoned apartment in the neighborhood called El Raval. She is only seventeen years old and ran away from home. In a more than precarious situation, she accepts that Àlex, the father, abandons the child in an affluent neighborhood, so that someone else can find her and take care of her. In her life, other lives marked by loss intersect: Pepe, a gardener who is going blind; Gloria, who struggles to defend the innocence of her daughter who died in a traffic accident while her husband escapes into alcohol; and Irene, who suffers the death of her mother and tries unsuccessfully to become pregnant. A few months after the birth, Sara tries to find her daughter again and comes into contact with Marga, a piano teacher who is running out of students.

This novel criticizes the society we are creating, increasingly individualistic, losing human contact and dialogue, and the author bets on trying to return to a more collective society and even recover what was a more traditional family. A work with short chapters and very well constructed characters that are intertwined and make it easy to read, while touching on deep issues that lead us to reflect. A perfect balance between a literary and a commercial work, that only good writers, like Bea Cabezas, know how to master to perfection.

There is always hope

Author: Bruno Thursday 9 November 2023

It is my turn to talk about another book by Francesc Miralles, but this time for young people. This author began writing juvenile literature and has not abandoned this facet, for which he has also had many successes, such as his first book UN HAIKU PARA ALICIA, Gran Angular 2002 prize organized by the publishing house Cruïlla, or RETRUM, which mobilized buses of fans dressed in black for Francesc to sign the book. Francesc Miralles is truly a wise man in the world of literature and for this reason it is vital that he does not abandon young people, since novels like JOHANNA AND DR. FRANKL are the kind of novels which captivates the reader from the first line, that tell you about a time, in this case a hard time, and a post-war period, but always with a message of hope that, nowadays, all young people need because, talking to several experts in psychology and psychiatry, they have told us that what young people feel is hopelessness in this world. On the one hand, it does not seem strange to me, I can understand them very well, we have created expectations that are not true, and every time they hear some news about the world, if they stop to listen to it, they find a world adrift with two open wars and with a climate change that advances and that nobody wants to put the necessary measures to take care of the place where they should grow up.

However, there have always been turbulent times and they have been overcome, so this novel, simple, tender and hard at the same time, tells the story of Johanna who, although she lives a horrible situation, which cannot be worse, finds hope, thanks to two people she meets in her life by chance. Here is a short summary of this novel:

In 1948, after World War II, Vienna is in shambles. Food is scarce and jobs are hard to find. Sixteen-year-old Johanna aspires to Work as a waitress in a cafeteria; she must support her mother, who has been in depression since her father died at the front. When she is fired, the world falls on her. However, that same day a chance encounter with a psychiatrist who suffered Nazi persecution and with a young American who interviews her for an article will help her find the motivation to live.

I suppose that in Francesc’s DNA there is always an IKIGAI, that reason to get out of bed every day, and therefore a motivation to live and not lose hope. This novel was as one of the finalists for the Edebé prize and it was a pity that it did not win the award, but I hope that, equally, entering the school circuit, it will be a reading that motivates young people to see that light they need and to understand that problems are neither big nor small, everyone has their own and all are respectable, and that, unfortunately, there are extreme situations, such as a war, that no one would like to live through, but even after something as difficult as living through a war, the loss of a parent and not having money to eat, which exists and is real, there is always a path to build and a green light that awaits us on that path.

Love has no borders

Author: Bruno Thursday 2 November 2023

When we say that love has no borders, it is very true. We are living through two wars, at this moment, and the “normal” citizens living in these countries do not share what they are living or would like that things could be solved in another way, because war is not the solution, we all know this, weapons do not make sense, and because, those in charge are not always absolutely right, and less and less, because we are in the hands of dangerous people who have lost the forms and values. And this is scary.

This week the photo that has been most popular in social networks has been a picture of two children hugging, one with the flag of Palestine and the other with the flag of Israel. Children are still capable of valuing friendship and love above flags, and, unfortunately, many adults have not yet understood that weapons should not be the resource for anything, it should be dialogue instead, but power and money make people lose their way: humanity is lost in a sad world that does not move forward. Have we evolved so little? It makes me feel very bad to turn on the TV every night and see that I can be sitting peacefully drinking a cup of coffee and thinking about my small problems, because they are still small, when I see the horror that these people are suffering and their despair. I feel helpless and that is why I believe that books like Miquel’s are needed, which, although they do not speak of war but of love between two people from two very different “sides”, it carries messages that should make us reflect.

Miquel explains the life of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, who met in 1925 at the University of Marburg. He was a professor and she was his student. He was married and she was single. She was eighteen and he was thirty-five. Thus begins Love Beyond World, an extraordinary novel about the relationship they maintained until the end of their lives despite all obstacles. Love Beyond World narrates in a thrilling way and, at the same time, with extreme delicacy, the tumultuous idyll between two of the great figures of European philosophy and thought. How can a sensitive Jewish intellectual and a professor of the highest prestige who was a militant in Hitler’s party love each other? Always marked by an anguished tension, the relationship between Arendt and Heidegger evolves in a stormy way and becomes an example of spiritual and philosophical love that goes beyond earthly ties.

Miquel Esteve has managed to capture one of the most incredible, contradictory and passionate love stories of the last century, still surprisingly forgotten today, which moves forward against the backdrop of some crucial episodes that will forever mark the future of humanity. An ideal reading to delve into the life and work of two key intellectuals to understand the contemporary world and I would add to try to learn from mistakes, that even reading great novels like this one, we are not able to stumble over the same stone.

Knowing how to feel

Author: Bruno Thursday 26 October 2023

In this week’s blog I talk about the novelty of our author Míriam Tirado, a reference in the world of conscious education. With her book Rabietas, she has already helped many families on how to deal with this big problem, as well as with Limits, her second book, she has made us aware of how vital it is to set limits and to know when and how to do it for the education of children, to help them to become solid teenagers and adults. Personally, I am a fan of Miriam, and I wish I had known her like this when my son was little, because everything would have been easier for me, I am convinced. For this reason I understand that many of you who are parents follow Míriam in everything she does.

Now she publishes TO FEEL, a book where she talks about emotions, a great topic as well. I have it all underlined, because I confess that I am very emotional, and nobody ever taught me how to manage my emotions, and many times I had a bad time. Míriam helps us to understand many things with this book, because she talks about emotions, and she names them: anger, jealousy, fear, longing, but also envy, calm, happiness and joy. I would have loved it if when I was a child someone had explained to me how these emotions are experienced and helped me to know how to manage them. This book makes us aware of how we get along with each emotion and, through knowing how we get along with each of them, we will be able to know why we react as we react when we feel them, and why we accompany them as we accompany them when others feel them. (These are Míriam’s words in her Instagram. They are so well linked, that I reproduce them as they are, because it cannot be better explained).

In addition, TO FEEL is a practical book, with exercises related to each emotion, which will help you put theory into practice, which is always the most complicated thing to do, since many readers miss how to apply what they have read to their daily lives once they have read books that we call “self-help”. TO FEEL is a complete book, so that you have tools to teach the little ones, but also to know yourself, to understand the child you were and the adult you have become and, above all, to understand those around you and the reason for their reactions. Understanding your children, your partner, your parents and even your clients can help you to make everything easier, to not make a big deal out of nothing and to learn that you can feel sad and angry and that it’s okay, that you must accept it and know how to deal with it.

I know that a lot has been said about emotions, but not as Míriam does, because she is a great communicator, apart from being an excellent writer. When I finish her books, the first reaction is peace, the second one is “I’m going to keep this book on my bedside table with everything I have underlined” and the third one is to say: “THANK YOU, MÍRIAM!

Frankfurt Book Fair 2023

Author: Bruno Thursday 19 October 2023

This Thursday, we are at the Frankfurt Fair with more energy than ever and with many titles to share with international publishers and reach readers around the world.

We leave you our catalogs and wish you a happy fair:

Highlights catalog for Frankfurt: DOWNLOAD ↆ

General catalog Sandra Bruna Agency authors: DOWNLOAD ↆ

General catalog of the Children/YA authors Sandra Bruna Agency: DOWNLOAD ↆ

NewBookNews, the selection of titles we have made from all the catalogs of our represented: DOWNLOAD ↆ

Next Thursday, as always, a new title recommended by Bruno. See you soon!



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