Biotz Alai at Roberto Fernández de Pinedo’s book presentation

Wednesday, May 20th 2009 (Javier Vizcaíno, radio Euskadi)
Robert, the sensible pediatrician

Not even Gala nor Perez Reverte have had such crowded presentations as the one for Roberto Fernandez de Pinedo that took place at the Hikaateneo in Bilbao just a few hours ago.
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Full house (lined with the bilbao -gauch- divine red flags) at the baptism of The Art of Being sensible parents…in sickness, the piece which will transform our beloved Jaio and her publishing house A Fortiori into the hearts’ desire of high-flying offices at (amongst others), Planeta and Random House Mondadori. The editorial wolves will haunt themselves with the question of ‘How did we not find this man first?’, whilst adding up in their heads the amount of euros, dollars and rubles that this book would have made for them, written by an unbeaten table-tennis pediatrician, which all his colleagues would have liked to have written themselves (thanks for the line, Itzi)…and which all impressionable parents of the world need to read in order to understand how comic we can get to be under the strain of third-night-in-row-coughing or at the forth day with no sign of bowel movement.
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If the aim of the book- to knock drama and fears off- is a good base towards success, even greater is the reward of the language and tone used in Roberto’s 256 pages. Impossible not to go from slight grin to open-out laughter in some parts, always under the impression of reading something that has already been…in first person. I have no doubts the book will be a success, and if Doctor Fernandez de Pinedo is willing to be caught up (I will try to convince him) as an enlightening role in the media, he will no doubt convey his knowledge in a way that could not even be copied by a team of fifty scriptwriters.
Last Sunday we witnessed the premier of The Art of Being Sensible Parents…in sickness. It was on Roberto’s first radio interview and despite being nervous and surprisingly shy, he came out to cheers and hoorahs. I must insist that he take the place of whichever asteroid of the MQ universe he may wish.