The Complete Works of Primo Levi

The Complete Works of Primo Levi

<p><strong>A <em>New York Times</em> Notable Book of the Year<br /> Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the <em>Washington Post</em> and <em>Library Journal</em><br /> A Holiday Gift Guide Selection in the <em>San Francisco Chronicle</em> and <em>Newsday</em><br /> A <em>New York Times Book Review</em> Editors’ Choice Selection</strong></p><p><strong><em>The Complete Works of Primo Levi</em>, which includes seminal works like <em>If This Is a Man</em> and <em>The Periodic Table</em>, finally gathers all fourteen of Levi’s books―memoirs, essays, poetry, commentary, and fiction―into three slipcased volumes.</strong></p><p>Primo Levi, the Italian-born chemist once described by Philip Roth as that “quicksilver little woodland creature enlivened by the forest’s most astute intelligence,” has largely been considered a heroic figure in the annals of twentieth-century literature for <em>If This Is a Man</em>, his haunting account of Auschwitz. Yet Levi’s body of work extends considerably beyond his experience as a survivor. Now, the transformation of Levi from Holocaust memoirist to one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers culminates in this publication of <em>The Complete Works of Primo Levi</em>. This magisterial collection finally gathers all of Levi’s fourteen books―memoirs, essays, poetry, and fiction―into three slip-cased volumes. Thirteen of the books feature new translations, and the other is newly revised by the original translator. Nobel laureate Toni Morrison introduces Levi’s writing as a “triumph of human identity and worth over the pathology of human destruction.” The appearance of this historic publication will occasion a major reappraisal of “one of the most valuable writers of our time” (Alfred Kazin).</p><p><em>The Complete Works of Primo Levi</em> features all new translations of: <em>The Periodic Table, The Drowned and the Saved, The Truce, Natural Histories, Flaw of Form, The Wrench, Lilith, Other People’s Trades</em>, and <em>If Not Now, When?</em>―as well as all of Levi’s poems, essays, and other nonfiction work, some of which have never appeared before in English.</p>