City of Lions

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.

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.