“The secret letters club” is a fresh and young book written by a Spanish writer, Ángeles Doñate, from Barcelona who is also a journalist and deals with communication in the social field. Some years ago she probably decided to “surf” the actual trend which is now part of our daily life: the strong use of social media. It seems we can’t live without sending a message or answer to a chat in a day. Information is coming from everywhere through our mobile phones, day and night.
Our way to communicate one to another changed rapidly and radically, overcoming all formal ways and breaking all time frames we were used to before.
The book is about a friendship between Sara and Rosa in a little village on the mountains in the interior of the region Catalunya in Spain called Porvenir.
Winter has arrived in Porvenir, and it has brought bad news: due to a shortage of letters, the post office is being closed and the staff will be transferred elsewhere. Texts, e-mails and whatsapps have prevailed even in this small village perched in the mountains. Sara, the only postmistress in the area, was born and bred in Porvenir and spends a lot of time with her neighbor Rosa, a sprightly 80-year-old woman who would do anything not to part with her and spare her a heartache. But what can Rosa invent to prevent the life of one of the people closest to her heart from being turned upside down? Perhaps she could write a letter she has been putting off for a good sixty years and invite the person who receives it to do the same by writing to someone in turn. Gradually, that small gesture will trigger an epistolary chain involving a young poetess determined to set up a book club in the local library, a Peruvian cleaning lady, a slightly clumsy cook and many others, setting Sara’s work in motion and creating quite a stir among the inhabitants of the small village. Because – as anyone who feels a thrill of joy every time they receive surprise mail and sinks their nose into the paper to smell it knows – one letter leads to another, like a kiss. And it can change the world.
We need to be sincere with ourselves… we can’t go back to love letters and lovers who take a long time to write a line and we can’t expect postcards like before. Things changed and all written papers became “vintage”. But this book is another perspective of something which can still happen… let’s dream with it!
For a while, because reading this book you don’t need a long time, 2-3 days, and like a fresh air in a era full of fast information, you dream to be in this little village, following the adventure the protagonists, 3 women, determined to change their life against what the what fate seems to have in store for them.
The secret letters club” is to be read for this reason: it’s actual, positive and represents a piece of everyone’s life. From the past to the future.
Enjoy watching my first book trailers realized for this amazing project “EU-READ&ART”.
Here the link
Author: Erika Gerardini, JUMP Team
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