The Periodic Table

Levi, Primo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805239294 ISBN 13: 9780805239294

Publisher: Schocken Books, 1988

'So it happens, therefore, that every element says something to someone'

Inspired by the rhythms of the Periodic Table, Primo Levi assesses his life in terms of the chemical elements he associates with his past. From his birth into an Italian Jewish family through his training as a chemist, to the pain and darkness of the Holocaust and its aftermath, Levi reflects on the difficult course of his life in this heartfelt and deeply moving book.

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:

A book it is necessary to read (Saul Bellow)

Wonderfully daring . . . Its extraordinary shifts of tone, from learned scientific treatise to epic war narrative, reflect Levi's eclectic reading and mesmeric story-telling gifts (Ian Thomson Guardian)