Publisher edition artwork
If This Is a Man
Primo Levi · First published 1947
A chemist's account of Auschwitz, written without a raised voice.
Essential
Easy to read, difficult to finish · Short — around 190 pages
Why Read It?
The clearest moral intelligence of the twentieth century, in under two hundred pages.
What It's About
Levi's ten months as a prisoner in Auschwitz-Monowitz and his return.
Why It Matters
It is the foundational testimony of the Holocaust in Italian and the standard against which all such writing is measured.
The Review
Levi was a chemist by training, and he examines the camp as a chemist examines a compound: precisely, patiently, without decoration. That restraint is what makes it unbearable and what makes it survive. The chapter on Dante's Ulysses canto, recited from memory while carrying soup, is among the most extraordinary passages in European literature.
It belongs in the Italian library not as a duty but because Levi is one of the great Italian prose writers of the century, and this is where he begins.
Best Read
Alone, unhurried, with nothing planned afterwards.
Three Things You'll Take From It
- 01
Precision is a form of respect for the reader and the dead.
- 02
Civilisation is a set of habits, and habits can be removed in weeks.
- 03
Levi refuses both revenge and easy consolation.
Better Read or Heard?
There is a fine unabridged reading, though print suits the weight of it.
If You Like This…
The Periodic Table — Primo Levi
His masterpiece of form.
Find it on AmazonThe Truce — Primo Levi
The extraordinary journey home.
Find it on Amazon
The Edition to Own
The Penguin Modern Classics edition pairs it with The Truce — the correct way to read them.
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