City of Lions
Philippe Sands author Jozef Wittlin author Antonia Lloyd-Jones translator Eva Hoffman editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pushkin Press
Published:25th May '23
Should be back in stock very soon
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 sensual and 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. With an illuminating preface by Eva Hoffman and stunning new photographs by Diana Matar, City of Lions is a powerful and melancholy evocation of central Europe in the twentieth century, with a special resonance for today's troubled continent.
[Philippe Sands'] essay makes for a sober and solid balance to Wittlin's more skittish approach, and completes the book perfectly -- John Self * Asylum *
Congratulations to Pushkin Press for bringing lovely, haunted Lviv to a new audience * TLS *
A walk down memory lane, a meditation on time, politics and remembrance * Dublin Review of Books *
Beautiful and disturbing songs in prose * Kazimierz Wierzynski *
The combined effect of the two pieces collected here is to paint a wonderfully evocative picture of Lvov now and then... a timely and excellent release by Pushkin Press. Highly recommended * Kaggy's Bookish Ramblings (blog) *
A detailed tour... well-illustrated * East-West Review *
Brief, plangent, and utterly delectable... What a pleasure this voyage is... Wittlin's book is so sensuous, so pungent, so delightful that the main question it prompts is: Why don't we have a whole library of such guides? * LA Review of Books *
A loving, sensuous, but also gently ironic reconstruction of a lost city * LA Review of Books *
ISBN: 9781805330011
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
160 pages