Product Description

A chemist by training, Primo Levi became one of the supreme witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In these haunting reflections inspired by the elements of the periodic table, he ranges from young love to political savagery; from the inert gas argon - and 'inert' relatives like the uncle who stayed in bed for twenty-two years - to life-giving carbon. 'Iron' honours the mountain-climbing resistance hero who put iron in Levi's student soul, 'Cerium' recalls the improvised cigarette lighters which saved his life in Auschwitz, while 'Vanadium' describes an eerie post-war correspondence with the man who had been his 'boss' there. All are written with characteristically understated eloquence and shot through with deep humanity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8839 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-07
• Original language: Italian
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Writer Primo Levi (1919-1987), an Italian Jew, did not come to the wide attention of the English-reading audience until the last years of his life. A survivor of the Holocaust and imprisonment in Auschwitz, Levi is considered to be one of the century's most compelling voices, and The Periodic Table is his most famous book. Taking the knowledge he gained from his training as a chemist, Levi uses the elements as metaphors to create a cycle of linked, somewhat autobiographical tales, including stories of the Piedmontese Jewish community he came from, and of his response to the Holocaust.

Review
It's good to find this most original book in print again this year. Levi, a young Italian, academically a chemist, could not, as a Jew in Fascist Italy, use his degree, though summa cum laude, for work. He joined the Resistance, was betrayed, and spent from 1943 to the war's end in Auschwitz. The full account, which must be read, is in his If This Is A Man, one of the great works of the twentieth century. Levi had found that writing had something in common with chemistry - the need for exactness, daring and discovery, the creating of something new and alive out of sullen, even noxious material. But The Periodic Table, with its deceptive lightness, gives little of the camp. Each of the 21 elements prompts an episode, usually in Levi's life. Never mind the order - I recommend starting with Iron. It gives not only the young Levi's passion for chemistry, but one of the most brilliant of his verbal portraits, here of Sandro, a fellow student. Read it, pass onwards, or take in Cerium, a rare camp piece. Tormented by hunger, Levi and his close friend Alberto devise a means of briefly securing a daily piece of bread. Will it keep them alive until the Russians come? Stranger still is 'Vanadium'. Some 20 years later, in business letters from a German firm, Levi recognizes the name and writing of his one-time Nazi camp overseer. Should he (outside business) make contact? He does - letters are exchanged. Then... Read one work by Levi and you will search for more. Add to your list Moments of Reprieve as well as If This is a Man Review by Naomi Lewis (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Primo Levi (1919-1987), an Italian Jew, did not come to the wide attention of the English-reading audience until the last years of his life. A survivor of the Holocaust and imprisonment in Auschwitz, Levi is considered to be one of the century's most compelling voices, and THE PERIODIC TABLE is his most famous book. Levi is also the author of the forthcoming Modern Classics: MOMENTS OF REPRIEVE and IF NOT NOW, WHEN?