City of Lions Portrait of a City in Two Acts: Lviv, Then and Now

by Wittlin, Jozef; Sands, Philippe; Lloyd-Jones, Antonia

• ISBN13: 9781805330011
• ISBN10: 1805330012
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781782271819
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-09-12
• Publisher: Pushkin Press

Summary

“A loving, sensuous, but also gently ironic reconstruction of a lost city” — LA Review of Books

A timely reissue of the classic portrayal of the Ukrainian city of Lviv by 2 authors in 2 acts, separated by time and circumstance

With an illuminating preface by Eva Hoffman and stunning new photographs by Diana Matar, City of Lions is a powerful and melancholy evocation of Ukraine in the twentieth century, with a special resonance for today.

Lviv, Lwów, Lvov, Lemberg. Known by a variety of names, the City of Lions is now in western Ukraine. Situated in different countries during its history, it is a city located along the fault-lines of Europe's history.

City of Lions presents two essays, written more than half a century apart - but united by one city.

Józef Wittlin's lyrical paean to his Lwów, written in exile, is a deep cry of love and pain for his city, where most people he knew have fled or been killed.

Philippe Sands' finely honed exploration of what has been lost and what remains interweaves a lawyer's love of evidence with the emotional heft of a descendant of Lviv.

Author Biography

Jozef Wittlin (1896-1976), Polish novelist, essayist and poet, studied Philosophy, German, French and History of Art before he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army in 1914. Discharged from the army two years later on the grounds of poor health, he became a teacher and turned to writing, and published Polish translations of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer's Odyssey in the 1920s. His novel Salt of the Earth (1936), has been translated into several languages and its American publication in 1941 resulted in awards from the Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Wittlin left Poland shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, and eventually settled in New York City.

Philippe Sands, QC, is a barrister, writer and Professor of Law at UCL, London, specialising in international law. He is a regular commentator on the BBC and CNN and writes frequently for leading newspapers. He is the author of East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" (2016 winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, From Nuremberg to The Hague: The Future of International Criminal Justice, and Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules--From FDR's Atlantic Charter to George W. Bush's Illegal War.

Jozef Wittlin's My Lviv translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd Jones