In the course of the past two decades, the city of Lviv has enjoyed close attention as
well as a “close reading” in literary and scholarly texts on the city. This attention fits
easily into two categories: (a) scholars producing academic studies on the city and
classical literary works on the city, composed in various languages, finally becoming
available to a broader readership through translation into English. The book under
discussion falls into the second category. It must be pointed out right away that this
is an unusual book - a truly successful combination of two essays - that should be
rewarded with proper attention.