On the road in Poland and Ukraine
Galicia is an integral part of the Habsburg myth and the epitome of worldly seclusion, Eastern Jewish cultural traditions, the Kakan way of life and indescribable poverty. Even if the supranational entity called the Habsburg Monarchy, to which Galicia belonged between 1772 and 1918, no longer exists, the region lives on in literature. In addition to Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Iwan Franko and Karl Emil Franzos, Joseph Roth, Bruno Schulz, Mascha Kaléko, Stanisław Vincenz, Józef Wittlin, Hnat Chotkevych, Zygmunt Haupt, Stanisław Lem, and Isaak Babel dealt with Galician themes. Today, Sophia and Juri Andrukhovych, Andrzej Stasiuk, Olga Tokarczuk, Martin Pollack, Tanya Maljartschuk, Taras and Jurko Prochasko, Ziemowit Szczerek, Natalka Sniadanko, Maxim Biller among others, do so. The book takes you to places of European history in the Southeast of Poland and in the West of Ukraine - from Krakow via Tarnow to Brody and from Lviv via Drohobych, Stanislau/Iwano-Frankiwsk and Boryslau to Zakopane. Marcin Wiatr reminds us that Galicia has historical lessons to teach us all in Europe.