• Knihy

Carmen - The Real Life of Hana Hegerova

The first and only comprehensive documentary novel about the greatest Czech-Slovak chansonnier. It was created with her consent, with the condition that it could be published only after her death. Throughout her career, she avoided such revelations. She consistently defended her privacy. She allowed only the author, who was one of her closest friends, to enter. From 2011, when she retired, until her last moments in March 2021, he became her confessor. He recorded dozens of hours of interviews, had access to her private life, to archival materials and personal correspondence, to Hana Hegerová's family, and was also one of the first to see her court files. He travelled and mapped all the places connected with her life and spoke to almost a hundred people who had worked with her or had been in close contact with her at some point in her life story. He collected a large number of photographs and documents that are published in the book for the first time. There wasn't a topic they didn't want to talk about together. Only here, for the first time, does she talk openly about her childhood under the Slovak fascist state, which marked her for life, as well as her time in a refugee camp, identity changes, communist prison and other previously unknown events in her life. Also about her private life, connected with incredible ups and downs, reflecting the events of the last ninety years... It was to the author of this book that she made one of her last phone calls when she decided to die. He was also the only one to give the eulogy at the last farewell to Hana Heger in the closest family circle. The extent and truthfulness of the testimony, thanks to Hana Hegerová's personal trust in the author, has created a testimony that no other author has had the opportunity to provide.