One of the most important and gifted writers of our time Italo CalviPrimo Levi was one of the most astonishing voices to emerge from the twentieth century: a man who survived one of the ugliest times in history, yet who was able to describe his own Auschwitz experience with an unaffected tenderness. Levi was a master storyteller but he did t write fairytales. These stories are an elegy to the human figures who stood out against the tragic background of Auschwitz, the ones in whom I had recognized the will and capacity to react, and hence a rudiment of virtue. Each centres on an individual who whether it be through a juggling trick, a slice of apple or a letter discovers one of the bizarre, marginal moments of reprieve. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and tes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.
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, andThe Periodic Tableis his most famous book. Levi is also the author ofMoments of Reprieve.