Bruno Blog

Marta Quintín is a young author whose novels have earned her a place in the literary world. Despite her youth she has won the Tomás Seral y Casas short story prize several times, and has published the novels Dime una palabra, El color de la luz and La tortuga que huía del jaguar, with which she won the Valencia prize in 2019 for authors under thirty years of age. She is a determined and brave woman like those in her novels.

In 2012, at the height of the Greek crisis, young Rebeca Benveniste is left all alone and on the verge of eviction. Her beloved nona, her grandmother, has passed away, and with her studies in Hispanic Philology she is unable to find a job to support herself. So she decides to travel to the small village of Alpartazgo, in the province of Zaragoza, where her Sephardic ancestors came from more than five hundred years ago. Among her meager luggage she carries the key that has been passed down from generation to generation and that probably opens the door to the house that her family had to abandon.

At the end of the 15th century, Vida Benveniste, the daughter of the butcher of the Jewish quarter of Alpartazgo, befriends Leonor de Lanuza, a member of the most powerful local noble family. Both are intrepid and intelligent and do not accept the limitations that mark them professing different religions. Their lives will inevitably follow very different paths, but their friendship, marked by deep feelings, will always prevail over creeds and social impositions.

Two vibrant and luminous stories that intertwine, full of small and big stories of love, sex, friendship, humor, uprooting and motherhood. Because female friendship and sisterhood are the engine of our lives.

Surely many readers of this blog have heard of the “Law of the Mirror”, which, as Yoshinori Noguchi explains in his book, refers to the fact that what you see in other people is a true reflection of what is within yourself. In other words, if you see negative things in someone else, what you are witnessing is a reflection of what is inside you. This phrase lies as a teaching method. For this reason, Xavier Guix has titled his new book THE LAW OF REFLECTION because, although the most popular version of the mechanisms of self-deception is the law of the mirror, the metaphor is more accurate if we refer to “the law of reflection”.   Self-deception is a trap that leads us away from the truth about ourselves, and the law of reflection warns us of an old axiom: “as within, so without” or, put another way, the world is a huge mirror in which your consciousness is reflected.  The positive or negative things in life are not only harboured in other people. You also have a number of relevant characteristics that may please or annoy those around you. That is why self-criticism is one of the most recommended practices if it is well used. The mirror reflects us, but we confuse what it shows us with our true identity. This book will help you discover the projections that cause you suffering and how to work with them in order to live a mirage-free life.   An essential self-knowledge tool to heal relationships with external people, being able to see how we ourselves are the cause of that deterioration or confrontation. Our perception of the world and of human relationships is a reflection of our inner self, which means that external circumstances highlight how we are on the inside. If you are able to see situations with people, what they reflect of you and you want to change the feeling of anger or disappointment, you must orient your behaviour towards forgiveness, to forgive yourself many personal aspects of which you may not even be aware and start changing suffering for inner peace. A short book, with an apparently complicated concept but which Xavier Guix, a veteran in his field, explains it easily so that every one of us can apply it in our daily lives. Only in this way will we be able to free ourselves from limiting beliefs and avoid unnecessary suffering that deprives us of living in a peaceful way, which is closer to a happy life.

This weekend has been a tough one for me. A 54-year-old friend of mine is gone, after fighting cancer for a year and a half. He was the healthiest and most athletic person you can imagine, and when he was diagnosed with that malignant tumour, we all clung to the hope that if anyone could fight it, even though the chances of life were slim, it was him. That strong and courageous person who was never afraid of anything. However, this was not the case, and we have had to accept this unfair and hard-to-digest goodbye. It is these situations that make you reflect on the fact that we only have one life and we have to live for the moment, but the unfortunate thing is that something big always has to happen before we have time to stop and listen to ourselves. It is then that we realise we cannot wait to enjoy life thinking that the extraordinary things will come, because it is the little things that fulfill us and give meaning to each day. This was very important to my friend, and that is why I know that he will be on a high peak enjoying the views of the world and watching from there that everything is going well for us around here.

For this reason, LA VIDA EMPIEZA CADA DIA, the book published this week by Anne Igartiburu, has a special meaning for me. As Anne says: LIFE IS HERE AND NOW. Anne Igartiburu, who has been a communicator for more than two decades, is one of the most loved and recognised television hosts in Spain. Over the last few years, she has carried out a beautiful work of divulgation in the field of emotional wellbeing, one of her great passions and in which she has trained with some of the best professionals in different fields. Her meetings with experts in psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience and philosophy on her different broadcasting channels and on her podcast Mi Latido de Más have brought her great recognition.

In this book she wants to share some of her most precious learnings from these years of work, and with the help and encouragement of Francesc Miralles, she has written this book where she offers us 366 thoughts that invite us to be aware of who we want to be in each moment, to be closer to ourselves and to live more intensely in the present moment. Living is not static. Life is destroyed and built with every breath, with every tick, with every dawn and every small gesture. That is why this book is an ideal companion in the adventure of existing. Little bits and pieces that help you remember what we easily forget. A great gift to help remind everyone we love that LIFE BEGINS EVERY DAY.

It’s been almost a month since we returned from the Frankfurt Book Fair, a fair where international publishers have been looking for more non-fiction books than fiction books. This business is a pendulum swing, and now it is the turn of the non-fiction concepts to win the game. However, we never give up, and we keep moving the fiction we believe in, against all odds, because we know that at any moment this can change. Now, books like Sonia Rico‘s are catching our attention. She publishes this week in Terapias Verdes (Urano) EL HÁBITO HACE AL MONJE: PEQUEÑOS PASOS PARA TRANSFORMAR TU VIDA (THE HABIT MAKES THE MONK: SMALL STEPS TO TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE). From the reference that Sonia makes with this popular saying, she transmits us that it is our habits that shape the people we are. What we think, feel, and do shapes our existence every day. We often think that it is the big events that are going to significantly change our existence and we forget that our life is a reflection of what we constantly repeat, both what is good for us and the opposite.

A fulfilling existence is possible through training, like almost everything else in life. But, for that, it is necessary to learn some things and unlearn many others. Here is the key to the question: Do you feel unhappy at certain times? Do you live under stress or suffer from anxiety? Do your negative thoughts deceive you? Do you find it difficult to live simply? Do you fail to love your environment in an altruistic and unconditional way? Do your daily chores weigh you down? Do you think your life could be better?

Sonia Rico’s book offers a new way of looking at and going through one’s life. The author, who is a yoga teacher, therapist and experienced coach, teaches us, through various resources, that we have all the conditions to be happy. We have everything in our hands to achieve it, we just have to train ourselves with small steps, which we can take every day. A philosophy for us to be able to live being present and to appreciate the beauty of life. Many people wrongly wait for happiness to come, but happiness is already within us. And to learn how to operate with it you must read Sonia’s book and know which things you should integrate in your daily life, and which ones you should eliminate.

Buddha was not a God, nor a magical being. He simply developed powerful habits that helped him to take care of his body, his mind, and his relationship with the world. Many of his teachings were passed down to Buddhist monks to be practised daily. Best of all, you too can incorporate them into your life, so don’t wait any longer… and get into the habit!

Can you imagine appreciating the beauty of life in every moment, enjoying every moment without waiting for the extraordinary, loving your daily chores, living without stress or anxiety, and finding your balance? The coach and author of TE AMARÁS TE SOBRETAS LAS COSAS, her previous book, has created a manual for you to transform your existence. A guide based on the habits of Buddhist monks so that you can enjoy your days with calm, plenitude, and harmony. A clear, short, and simple book so that we can all be happy every day and not dream that we can be happy one day, because as another wise man told me: Happiness is small moments of joy, live them or you will die waiting for that Great moment that may never come.

Some Tibetan monks have been called the happiest people in the world. Something you too can achieve, through practice. Worldly life is a magical path, full of challenges and learning. You may just need to open your soul’s eyes and get ready to walk. This book facilitates a new way of being in your life: finding your true essence beyond thoughts, loving your daily tasks, simplifying your days, and savouring them slowly, accepting the flow of existence and, above all, cultivating compassion for yourself, for all beings and for everything around you. When you feel that your life is a miracle, you will unfold the unconditional love and energy needed to live in true balance.

There is an urban legend that says that literary agents like to read everything. However, I would say that it is exactly the opposite, because as time goes by you have read so much that you become very picky, and it becomes increasingly difficult to like something one hundred percent – at least for me. Sometimes it even makes me angry because this level of demand is mostly imposed by extra-literary reasons that make reading always professional, and you always find yourself reading with a critical eye. On the other hand, what this profession does give you is intuition, and you know perfectly well when you are in front of a text that moves you, that doesn’t leave you indifferent, that traps you and makes you look for any time to read because that’s what you like and because you are in front of a perfect text. And that is exactly what has happened to me with Clara Peñalver, a new author in the agency, but not in the profession.
 
Her new and haunting thriller, LA IMPORTANCIA DE TU NOMBRE trapped me in such a way that I enjoyed this genre, which is not usually what I like the most or what I would choose to read in my free time. And when this happens, many of you who are readers, and read this blog, will know that it is an inexplicable and very comforting feeling. Waiting to see what happens until the end, but at the same time not wanting that book to end that has you hooked and makes you enjoy those moments that are just for you. An incomparable pleasure, that’s what reading is, and that’s what Clara has achieved with this novel.
 
This disturbing thriller has a brutal premise: the life of a renowned therapist explodes when she finds herself trapped in the macabre psychological game of a stranger. Elena Maldonado, a prestigious psychologist in the Salamanca neighbourhood, receives a message in which someone claims they are going to murder one of her patients and that she will have to decide which one and how he should die. At first it seems like a bad joke, but she soon discovers that her anonymous puppeteer knows all her secrets and that, if she doesn’t follow the rules of the game, her daughter will be in danger. The good news is that Elena knows how people’s minds work. The bad news is that her stalker’s cruelty seems to be totally inhuman. Who are they and where does all this hate come from? How long has she known them? Is she unknowingly sharing her daily life with a sadistic killer?
 
It’s been a long time since I’ve been captivated by a thriller like this, and the truth is that I can’t stop recommending this novel to those who like mystery, intelligent and surprising twists in a text where you never know what’s going to happen. It keeps you in tension until the last page. You will be suspicious even of yourself. And that can only be done by a good writer like Clara, who deserves, with this thriller, to be recognised as one of the best authors of the genre.