The Con Man’s Wife

People move to Bratislava, as the country's capital and largest city, from all over Slovakia. Those who want to achieve something in life—the talented, the capable, the ambitious, but also the slackers, the thieves, the scoundrels. And sometimes, they are truly indistinguishable. The main protagonist of Ivana Havranová's crime novel is a nobody, a person belonging to a group of con artists. He manages to get into high society, and there, with his story, convinces a wealthy businessman, one of the most famous in the country. He thus becomes a parasite who can embellish his story, exploit it, and live like a king from it for years. However, an ordinary girl also enters the story, looking for a good economist position in Bratislava. As an invoice clerk, she meets the con artist, falls in love, and a completely different life begins for her. The dynamic, thrilling, and tragic story reveals the unfortunate fates of people in the capital city and shows that life there is often dangerous and false.

Ivana Havranová studied journalism at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. She worked and grew professionally in the editorial office of the daily newspaper Smena, in the magazine Zornička, and later in Czechoslovak Television as a journalist for the youth magazine Televízny klub mladých (Television Youth Club). She is the author of over thirty short story collections, novels, and non-fiction books, more than 400 television scripts, and numerous short stories for children, interviews, and reports. After 1989, she founded her own publishing house, where she published seven magazines such as Maxisuper, the Slovak Bulvár, Lišiak, and others. She lives and works in Bratislava.