Slovenian author, publisher, politician and TV personality, Luka Novak spent his early years in his native Slovenia (at that time part of Yugoslavia), and later spent time in Paris, Rome, and Tübingen, Germany. In 1993 he co-founded Vale-Novak Publishers, one of the most influential and trendsetting publishing houses in Slovenia, that he ran for almost two decades, published over one hundred titles, established an independent bookstore chain, and even opened the first concept store in Eastern Europe, selling books, fashion and food. Today, with his wife Valentina, he hosts a popular cookery and lifestyle TV show and is the author of many best-selling cookbooks and art books. He is the programme director of the Slovenian Book Fair, writes columns for the Slovenian media, is active as political consultant and ran for Mayor of Ljubljana in 2006. Luka Novak is fluent in five languages (English, French, German, Italian, Serbo-Croatian), and his mother tongue, Slovenian. He translated twenty books into Slovenian, including works by British author Julian Barnes (Flaubert’s Parrot), French writer Frédéric Beigbeder (Windows on the World) and Italian fin-de-siècle novelist Gabriele D’Annunzio (Il Piacere). The Golden Shower, first published in 2008 by Vale-Novak, is his first novel. He lives with his wife and four children in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
