A con man’s life is constant risk, walking a tightrope. Sonya the Golden Hand seems to have flashed like a bright star over Russia and Europe, ending her path at Moscow’s Vagankovskoye Cemetery.
The godfather of the Odessa “swindlers,” whom they affectionately called Papa, was known not only in Odessa. Sasha—
fantastic at dealing in simple doll rags instead of diapers—trusted deals with him. The modest shoemaker Sema, who in his entire life had never even stabbed a chicken, kept fear in the hearts of the toughest city mafias. Such people could exist only in “Mother Odessa,” where the very air is soaked with the scent of easy profit…