Bruno Blog

This week is dedicated to a book that introduces us to a new concept: LA AMBICIÓN AMABLE (“The Friendly Ambition”).

We always associate being ambitious with something negative. In fact, I looked up the definition of ambition in the dictionary and it literally says: Ambition— intense and vehement desire to achieve something difficult to attain, especially wealth, power, or fame. Linking this word only to wealth, power and fame gives it this negative touch, and makes us feel that being ambitious is bad. Anna Vicen, however, turns it into something positive by adding the word “friendly”, because being ambitious is not bad, as long as we know how to manage it.

Ambition is a charge of energy that can help us achieve our goals if we know how to channel it. Is it malicious to try to improve in life? I think not, and if you don’t have a little ambition, it is difficult to achieve results. And I’m not just talking about results related to success or fame, but in what you want to achieve in your daily life; with your partner, with your family, with your friends, even for yourself.  Ambition is the gasoline that drives us to fight for what we want, but in a sustainable way, without having to step on anyone to get it: a positive force in taking that step forward in what you want, in what you desire.

The Friendly Ambition is a book that gives you the necessary tools to be an ambitious person and achieve your goals. Are you ambitious? If you are, you should read this book, because you will have tools to channel that ambition in a better way, and if you are not, you need it. So don’t hesitate and go for it. If friendly ambition existed in all aspects of our lives, the world would be a better place.

I’m excited about this week’s blog because Malenka Ramos is back: an author who is making a niche for herself in horror, a difficult genre. In being a woman, she has yet another obstacle to overcome. Publishing legends say that horror does not sell, but on the other hand we have the great master Stephen King, who publishes bestsellers just as popular as horror movies. Why is it difficult for Spanish authors to position themselves in this genre? I don’t know the answer–perhaps readers have it, but Malenka was given the title of the “Spanish Stephen King”, and although comparisons are really only sales labels, it helped us to gain that niche in the world of literary horror. It’s a niche we don’t want to lose, and I am sure that with this novel, not only will we not lose it but we will gain space, because LOS CRIMENES DE HAMLET is a horror novel with supernatural overtones that grabs you from beginning to end.

At the age of seventy, Hamlet, the famous serial killer, spends his days immersed in the dark dream of once again painting the disturbing scenes that keep the police awake at night. He has been held in a maximum security prison for twenty years, but despite this, a new corpse with his unmistakable signature has appeared in the quiet and secluded valley of Caín. The event has awakened the Cutter, a diabolical and bloodthirsty being who, according to popular belief, only lived in old legends. Until now. The Carver and his entourage have come to the call of blood and claim their domain in the forest with their particular signature: he cuts off arms and legs. Hamlet and the oldest woman in the town are the only people who can help the police unravel the case.

We have all the ingredients to get you hooked on this novel. For horror lovers it is perfect, it will not disappoint, and for those of us who are not, it will keep us in suspense, and also, from time to time, we will have to stop and breathe, because the tension is at its maximum. Malenka gets what she wants: the reader is in the state that makes any little noise a jumpscare. If this novel were directed by Bayona and starred Belén Rueda, it would be top of the billboards, so I hope readers help us to put it at the top of the lists, because it is pure entertainment.

Susana Rodriguez is an author who needs no introduction. Her trilogy SIN RETORNO has sold more than 30,000 copies and soon we will be able to it on the big screen.

She writes crime novels for fans of the genre, and for those of us who perhaps are not so much, because her female characters are engaging, brave, strong and credible. Besides, there is no lack of any “noir” ingredient in her stories, especially in this one. EN LA SANGRE, published by Harper Collins, who continues to back Rodriguez, is the second novel following the story of Inspector Marcela Pieldelobo. Pieldelobo is still being questioned for her resolution of a triple murder case related to a powerful Opus Dei family. But this time, another murder has occurred: the young Elnur Amézaga, a police confidant and girlfriend of a prominent local nationalist leader in Beta, a small town in Navarra. 

Everything points to Inspector Ribas, Marcela’s friend and ex-lover, as the culprit, although it has been many years ago, and therefore she is reluctant to believe that her “friend” is a corrupt policeman. But we know Pieldelobo, and we know that she will not stop until the end, ignoring all the anonymous blackmail to settle the case as soon as possible, and the threats of the nationalist environment refusing to be dragged into a drug-related case.

All in all: murders, police corruption and an inspector who believes in her instinct, above all, and will start a dangerous investigation against the clock that could cost her her life.

Anxiety is the big word. The most used among all of us who go through life against the clock. Who doesn’t feel pressure in their chest? Nerves? Almost all of us have worries or things that make us anxious, and we can all be affected by anxiety at some time or another. Not for nothing is it one of the most common mental afflictions in the West, which can present itself as a simple annoyance but sometimes becomes a huge black cloud that prevents us from living as we want.

Ferran Cases, expert in anxiety, invites us to explore the patterns that lead us to feel anxious and teaches us how to change them. All this in small and accessible steps, which the author presents in the form of a staircase of stages to overcome. Step by step, we will learn to breathe, to calm our inner voice and control catastrophic thoughts, to soak up the importance of physical exercise or mindfulness, to cultivate habits that allow us to keep moving forward. The way out of anxiety is to know ourselves and redirect our way of interpreting the world, and we just have to have the courage to take the first step. In this new edition, completely revised and expanded, Cases includes new exercises and five additional steps that, based on the philosophical principle of stoicism (a doctrine based on the mastery of facts and passions that disturb life), use the courage and reason of personal character to help us conquer the art of true happiness.

Ferran is on the seventh edition of EL CEREBRO DE LA GENTE FELIZ (THE BRAINS OF HAPPY PEOPLE) and 8 countries, Brazil, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Greece, Italy and Poland, have chosen to translate it. Ferran’s experience, backed up by a neuroscientist, Sara Teller, led to this practical and necessary book. In EL PEQUEÑO GRAN LIBRO DE LA ANSIEDAD (THE LITTLE BIG BOOK OF ANXIETY), Ferran provides us with the tools he has learned and how to apply them, after listening to experts on the subject and going through his own personal experience. An effective technique, for all of us who ever feel that uncomfortable feeling called anxiety, that invades us and sometimes paralyzes us. Climbing Ferran’s steps is a therapy that can help us when we are anxious about our daily tasks, when we are somewhat overwhelmed, and if we follow these steps we could get to control it. Therefore, this is a necessary book for most of us. It will not disappoint you.

I don’t tend to talk about poetry on this blog, since we don’t represent poets. However, some of our authors dare to venture into the genre, which I always admire, because I find it extremely difficult, and I’ve always been in awe of those who know how to do it.

Alejandro Palomas is one of those authors– he has always written poetry, and in recent years he’s been able to find the right themes and the perfect editor to publish them. Letraversal does an extraordinary job: it takes bravery to publish poetry, and they’ve managed to make it into a beautiful book, beautiful like Alejandro’s words.

His latest title, Y UN DESPÉS, is about facing the emptiness left by a mother and understanding that nobody teaches us to be orphans. With an intimate and overwhelming voice, Palomas welcomes us into the intimacy of grief and embodies the pain, naked and pure, that emanates from absence. It is about the desire to see her again, becoming comfortable with living among memories, and discovering the woman who hides behind a mother. It is a precious, delicate collection of poems and the perfect gift to pay homage to mothers, without whom we would not be here.

Alejandro has made his novel UNA MADRE a longseller, just like UN HIJO and EL TIEMPO QUE NOS UNE,because in them we discover characters that steal our souls. And in this book of poems, the one who steals our soul is Alejandro himself– if you also have the privilege of being able to listen to him recite them, which we did on January 16th, in a full-to-the-brim theatre in Barcelona, it really leaves a lasting impression. So I encourage you to also become acquainted the poet Alejandro, because you will not be disappointed.