Osyp Vasylovych Turianskyi (02 February 1880 – 28 March 1933) graduated from the Ukrainian Gymnasium in Lviv and the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Vienna, where he also earned a doctorate in philosophy.
During the First World War, while serving in the Austrian army, he was taken prisoner by Serbian forces. As a prisoner of war, he endured a difficult march through the Albanian mountains and was later transferred to Elba Island, where in 1917 he wrote the novella Beyond the Limits of Pain, reflecting his lived experience. After returning from captivity, he worked at the University of Vienna and in schools in Galicia.
At the center of the narrative are the ordeals of seven prisoners of war. One of them (Ohliadivskyi) is clearly based on the author himself, as Turianskyi was a native of the village of Ohliadiv in Lviv Oblast. The others represent different peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (an Austrian, a Serb, a Hungarian, a Ukrainian, a Pole, and a Montenegrin), all former soldiers. Having escaped from their guards, the men are forced to cross Albania in the harsh conditions of winter, where many perish from cold, disease, and exhaustion. Against this backdrop, the author presents the memories and reflections of seven companions struggling to survive.
The book is in a hard cover, with a dark gray cloth spine, and consists of 230 pages. On the title page there is a handwritten inscription in black ink: “To Lytvynov.” The portrait of Turianskyi and the graphic-style illustration, according to various sources, were created by an unknown artist.