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East West Street

Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize

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East West Street

By: Philippe Sands
Narrated by: David Rintoul, Philippe Sands
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About this listen

 WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

'A monumental achievement: profoundly personal, told with love, anger and great precision' - John le Carré

'A triumph of astonishing research ... No novel could possibly match such an important work of truth' - Antony Beevor

'Magnificent ... I was moved to anger and to pity. In places I gasped, in places I wept. I wanted to reach the end. I couldn't wait to reach the end. And then when I got there I didn't want to be at the end' - The Times
When human rights lawyer Philippe Sands received an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, he began to uncover a series of extraordinary historical coincidences. It set him on a quest that would take him halfway around the world in an exploration of the origins of international law and the pursuit of his own secret family history, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg Trials.

Part historical detective story, part family history, part legal thriller, Philippe Sands guides us between past and present as several interconnected stories unfold in parallel. The first is the hidden story of two Nuremberg prosecutors who discover, only at the end of the trials, that the man they are prosecuting may be responsible for the murder of their entire families in Nazi-occupied Poland, in and around Lviv. The two prosecutors, Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin, were remarkable men, whose efforts led to the inclusion of the terms 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide' in the judgement at Nuremberg. The defendant, Hans Frank, Hitler's personal lawyer and Governor-General of Nazi-occupied Poland, turns out to be an equally compelling character.

The lives of these three men lead Sands to a more personal story, as he traces the events that overwhelmed his mother's family in Lviv and Vienna during the Second World War. At the heart of this book is an equally personal quest to understand the roots of international law and the concepts that have dominated Sands' work as a lawyer. Eventually, he finds unexpected answers to his questions about his family, in this powerful meditation on the way memory, crime and guilt leave scars across generations, and the haunting gaps left by the secrets of others.

Read by Philippe Sands and David Rintoul

(p) 2016 Orion Publishing Group©2016 Philippe Sands Europe History Law Political Science Politicians Politics & Activism Politics & Government Holocaust Imperialism War Military Socialism Crime

Critic Reviews

A monumental achievement: profoundly personal, told with love, anger and great precision (John le Carré)
Supremely gripping. Sands has produced something extraordinary. Written with novelistic skill, its prose effortlessly poised, its tone perfectly judged, his book teems with life, from the bustling streets of Habsburg Lviv to the high drama of the Nuremberg trials. One of the most gripping and powerful books imaginable (Dominic Sandbrook)
Important and engrossing. . . even when charting the complexities of law, Sands's writing has the intrigue, verve and material density of a first-rate thriller. . . He can magic whole histories of wartime heroism out of addresses eight decades old. Or, chasing the lead of a faded photograph, he can unearth possible alternate grandparents and illicit liaisons to be verified only by DNA tests. . . an exceptional memoir (Lisa Appignanesi)
Engrossing ... Sands has written a remarkable and enjoyable book, deftly weaving his own family history into a lively account of the travails of the early campaigners for international human rights law (Caroline Moorhead)
A magnificent book. A work of great brilliance. There is narrative sweep and intellectual grip. Everything that happens is inevitable and yet comes as a surprise. I was moved to anger and to pity. In places I gasped, in places I wept. I wanted to reach the end. I couldn't wait to reach the end. And then when I got there I didn't want to be at the end (Daniel Finkelstein)
A fascinating and revealing book, for the things it explains: the origins of laws that changed our world, no less. It's also a readable book, and thoughtful, and compassionate. Most fundamentally, though, it's a book that tells a few individual human stories that lie behind the world-changing ones. That storytelling isn't redemptive - what could be, in this context? - but it confronts all those silences and challenges them. That challenge makes it an important book too (Daniel Hahn)
A vivid and readable contribution, part memoir, part documentary, to the history debate ... Much of the most compelling material in this book is personal ... Moving and powerful (Mark Mazower)
Outstanding ... This is the best kind of intellectual history. Sands puts the ideas of Lemkin and Lauterpacht in context and shows how they still resonate today, influencing Tony Blair, David Cameron and Barack Obama. When we think of the atrocities committed by Slobodan Milosevic or Bashar al-Assad, it is the ideas of these two Jewish refugees we turn to. Sands shows us in a clear, astonishing story where they came from (David Herman)
In a triumph of astonishing research, Sands has brilliantly woven together several family stories which lead to the great denouement at the Nuremberg tribunal. No novel could possibly match such an important work of truth (Antony Beevor)
A book like no other I have ever read - unputdownable and unforgettable (Orlando Figes)
A beautiful and necessary book (A.L. Kennedy)
All stars
Most relevant
Brilliant. We'll set out and clearly enunciated. I will now turn to the follow up.

East West Srereet

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An incredible account of the horrors that occurred prior to and during WW2 that lead to the creation of the offences of genocide and crimes against humanity in international law. The story of the men behind them. Meticulously researched. Beautifully told. Must read.

Moving. Informative.

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This is an absolutely fascinating book - told in such an inventive way that it defies description. Don't be put off by the subtitle - yes on one level it is a fine and rigorous piece of academic research, but this sits underneath a beautifully told tale of family.
I loved the way the author captured deeply personal moments of love and loss and connection, woven through a massive historical landscape. The narration is just right for the content.

Extraordinary

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This story was incredible. I have spent a lot of time reading and research WWII era European history but this was a new take, a new way to share the story. Bringing a personal family story together with other family stories the ideas of crimes against humanity and genocide are explored from the perspectives of then men who developed them. Reads like fiction. It is very interesting for anyone interested in international law.

Incredible

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A great story that we really appreciate. A history I didn’t know anything about.
Narrations are also brilliant.
Thanks for producing this audiobook.

Highly recommended

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This was not my usual type of book but the story is so interesting. The history is shocking and I was alternately listening to other books on the topic with less factual information so this helped me understand them too. I think it is important to remind ourselves of these events so that we are forever vigilant to bigotry and racism. I had to listen in small sections as it is complex. Brilliant research.. loved his perseverance.

so fascinating

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Great research. Narrative reads like fiction, I wish it was. Accessible for a general readership

Important, interesting, distressing

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people's names took a while to connect.
powerful reality!! necessary reading! thanks for the research!!

truth

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One of the most incredible works of non-fiction I've ever read. Highly, highly recommend reading it.

Incredible

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I wanted to like this book but it was difficult to follow any sort of narrative structure. May attempt again.

Didn’t get it

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