pThe novel emSeven Signs of the Lionem is a magical journey to the city of Lviv in Western Ukraine. Part magical realism, part travelogue, part adventure novel, and part love story, it is a fragmented, hybrid work about a mysterious and mythical place. The hero of the novel Nicholas Bilanchuk is a gatherer of living souls, the unique individuals he meets over the course of his five-month stay in his ancestral homeland. These include the enigmatic Mr. Viktor, who, with one eye that always glimmers, in a dream summons him across the Atlantic Ocean to the city of lions, becoming his spiritual mentor the genius mathematician Professor Potojbichny a man of science with a mystical bent and whose name means man from the other side the exquisite beauty Ada, whose name suggests woman from Hades in Ukrainian, whose being emanates irresistible sensuality, but who never lets anyone capture her beauty in a picture the schizophrenic artist Ivan the Ghostseer, who lives in a bohemian hovel of a basem