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 only be published after her death. She has avoided such revelations throughout her career. She has consistently defended her privacy. She only allowed the author, who was one of her closest friends, to enter. From 2011, when she retired, until her final 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 one of the first to see her court files. He has travelled and mapped all the places connected with her life, and spoken to almost a hundred people who worked with her or were in close contact with her at some point in her life story. He collected a large number of photographs and documents, which are published in the book for the first time. There wasn't a subject they didn't want to talk about. It is only here that he talks openly for the first time about his childhood under the Slovak fascist state, that scarred her for life, as well as his time in the refugee camp, identity changes, communist prison and others, of previously unknown events in his life. It is also about privacy, connected with incredible ups and downs, reflecting the events of the last ninety years... It was the author of this book who made one of her last phone calls when she decided to die. He was also the only one who gave the eulogy at the last farewell to Hana Hegerová in the closest family circle. Thanks to the scope and truthfulness of Hana Hegerová's personal trust in the author, a testimony has been created that no other author has the opportunity to bring.