The Lady Waiting: A Novel | Magdalena Zyzak

One bright Los Angeles day, a young Polish émigré named Viva is driving along the freeway when she’s flagged down by a dazzling, disheveled woman in green chiffon. The woman is Bobby Sleeper, a fellow Eastern European and an erstwhile art gallerist with a mysterious background and even more mysterious filmmaker husband. Within days the couple hire Viva as their assistant, then enlist her as an accomplice in an improbable scheme involving a long-lost Vermeer masterwork, a multi-million-dollar reward, and several shadowy ex-husbands.

As Bobby and her husband weave her ever more tightly into their web, Viva is swept up in an escapade that’s one part art heist, one part love triangle, and one part education of a felon. Entranced by their lifestyle, alarmed by their ramshackle scam, Viva realizes she’s out of her depth—and that only luck, cunning, and her own hustler’s instinct can save her from disaster. Careening from the canyons of LA to the canals of Venice, The Lady Waiting is a page-turning caper, a cavalcade of twenty-first-century sins—rapacious capitalism, shameless fraud, and atrocious behavior—and a showcase for three of the biggest and most unforgettable characters in recent fiction.

About the Author

Magdalena Zyzak was born in Silesia, Poland. She received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. She is the author of the novel The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel, hailed as “a wickedly good debut” by the Los Angeles Times. Also a filmmaker, she has written, directed, and produced several motion pictures, including Redland, which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and Maya Dardel, released internationally by Samuel Goldwyn Pictures and MGM/Orion. Zyzak has been honored as an outstanding cultural figure in the Polish community abroad by the Teraz Polska, a cultural foundation.