No one, I believe, would disagree that the first edition of the work (1924) serves as the birth certificate of a great writer […] Since “that day” this classic of our literature, which, as is known, experienced seven versions and as many editions until 1955, has enjoyed over ninety years of fruitful existence. The repeated reprints of its definitive seventh edition attest to the fact that “The Book of War” resists time vigorously.

From the afterword by Niki Lycourgos

Life in the Grave: From the First to the Second Edition

For the first time in one volume, the two first editions of Myrivili's most famous work that made him known to a vast audience. This deeply anti-militaristic work is worthy of its counterparts in European and world literature, and has already been translated into English, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Hungarian, and Bulgarian, while new translations into French and Spanish are being prepared.

This edition, enriched with a new preface, a list of characters, a comparative table of the manuscripts and various (pre)publications in magazines and newspapers of the time, and two afterwords by Niki Lycourgos, holds particular interest, as it highlights unknown aspects of the unique writing history of the work as well as the significant differences between the first edition of 1924 and the second of 1930, which also served as the basis for the seventh and definitive edition of the book in 1955.