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If This Is a Man / The Truce (Paperback)

by Primo Levi (Author), S. Woolf (Translator) "IN 1943 Primo Levi, a young chemist from Turin, helped to form a partisan band which he and his comrades hoped would eventually be affiliated..." (more)
4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Frequently Bought Together

If This Is a Man / The Truce + The Periodic Table (Penguin Modern Classics) + The Drowned and the Saved (Abacus Books)
Price For All Three: £20.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (1 Jan 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0349100136
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349100135
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,798 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > P > Primo, Levi
    #1 in  Books > Biography > Holocaust
    #1 in  Books > History > Europe > Italy

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Product Description

Review
'The death of Primo Levi robs Italy of one of its finest writers...One of the few survivors of the Holocaust to speak of his experiences with a gentle voice' GUARDIAN 'A life-changing book.' Daily Express THE TRUCE: 'One of the century's truly necessary books.' Philip Roth 'One of the greatest human testaments of the era.' SCOTSMAN IF THIS IS A MAN: 'This book is the most profoundly affecting of all those written by survivors of the Holocaust. Sober and passionate, it depicts an experience of the ultimate nightmare related by a man both sensitive and resilient, who speaks for all those made dumb forever.' THE WEEK 'Levi's book still has the power to make one weep of the greatest and alas, the defining atrocity of our century. Yet throughout, the fear, the endless hunger and the pain are leavened by tiny grains of affection, of generosity, even humour. Which is why this masterpiece is not merely terrifying but also endlessly readable. It is, ultimately, about moral as well as physical endurance, about hope, and about the survival of man's unquenchable human spirit.' DAILY MAIL 'Levi builds a serene sense of Man's worth. This is an extraordinarily endearing testament.' LONDON DAILY NEWS 'His tone throughout the memoir is dry-eyed and understated. He makes few references to himself, and they are rarely flattering. But by the end of this short book one is left with a monument to human dignity.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'In describing Levi's account of his experiences in Nazi camps it is tempting to say that words are not enough, that language crumbles before this unforgettable testament. But the book's achievement is precisely to abjure such hyperbole to name the unnameable. Eschewing a desire for recrimination, Levi offers a lucid document of a descent into hell which is courageous and unflinching.' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Daily Express
'A life-changing book.'


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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
IN 1943 Primo Levi, a young chemist from Turin, helped to form a partisan band which he and his comrades hoped would eventually be affiliated with the Resistance movement 'Justice and Liberty'. Read the first page
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If This Is a Man / The Truce
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Customer Reviews

32 Reviews
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3 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important books of the 20th century, 12 Jan 2006
If this book is not on the national curriculum as essential reading for the European History module, then it should be. Before I bought this book, I asked myself "did I want to read another book on the Holocaust"? This isn't neccessarily about the Holocaust, in fact, a small portion of the book takes place in Auschwitz, it's more about one mans survival through hell, uncertainty and the unknown. Yet, because it is beautifully written, it uplifts, rather than depresses the reader. Levis' gentle prose style and almost photographic memory make this book a must read. It's a book that I will read many times throughout my life. Buy it!
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38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Review, 28 Feb 2006
By A Customer
I approached If This Is A Man with a certain amount of weariness. There have been countless films and books and TV programmes about the Holocaust, so what would one more book on the subject present? The answer to that is that If This Is a Man brings a real sense of the horror of Auschwitz to the reader. The figure of 6 million dead almost de-humanises the de-humanised: it is easy to rattle off that figure without actually thinking about the impact of separation, suffering and murder on an individual human being. This book hits the reader with the stark realities of day to day existence within the concentration camp.

Levi describes the nearest thing to Hell. Working to exhaustion in the freezing cold of winter, the beatings to which prisoners have become accustomed, lice and dirt, perpetual hunger and having to go to the 'toilet' several times during the night because of the heavily watered down soup. This latter task involves a hobble through the snow in a pair of wooden shoes (one pair per hut) to use a bucket which, if full, must be emptied by the unfortunate prisoner, who will try in vain not to spill the contents on his feet. Levi puts everything of our lives into the perspective of his as a prisoner. As prisoners slept head to foot next to each other, it was always better to empty the pail than to sleep next to someone who has just emptied it.

Levi deatils the average life expectancy of a healthy human being who does not find himself a niche or with something unique to offer. It is a shocking read, and while desperate to reach the end and find something to be optimistic about, the book held my attention from cover to cover.

At the end of the book are several questions put to the author by his readers (for instance, why did the prisoners not revolt against the Nazis?). The two titles are best read together, but of the two, If This Is Man is the more profound. An essential read for anyone interested in the subject.

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31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, 9 Jan 2004
I cannot praise this book highly enough.

Levi describes his time in Auschwitz with such clarity and objectivity it's as if he wanted to report the facts and let the world make it's own mind up. Having said that this is not a cold, clinical account, as with reportage, as Levi describes great compassion in friendships he makes and horror he sees.

His story is similar to many others (obviously as they all shared an experience) but I felt as though I was given a different perspective with this book.
This becomes clearer at the back of the book when Levi sets out a series of questions that he has been asked since he wrote the first edition. Here he gives answers to letters asking "Do you hate the Germans" and so on. I won't spoil the book by revealing any of his answers but they show why Levi is so respected as a writer of the Holocaust.

Since reading this I have read many of Levi's works and would suggest reading the 'Drowned and the Saved' which goes deeper into the people he met and contains an excellent chapter on how he survived while his friend was sent on the Death March when the camp was liquidated.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound and Unsentimental
This double volume of memoirs of Primo Levi's time in Auschwitz is the finest work on the Holocaust I have read. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley

5.0 out of 5 stars If This Is A Man/ The Truce
This account of Primo Levi's time spent in Auschwitz is shattering, horrible and compelling. Although it is a cliche, it's a book that everyone should read to discover, not only... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jude

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should get this book on the nhs
The greatest, most humane piece of writing about the holocaust ever written. And one of the greatest books I've read. One of the few books that I return to time and time again. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sd May

5.0 out of 5 stars A Witness to Barbarism
I have meant to read this for a long time, and the wait was worth it. Levi - certainly in translation - writes the most beautiful, spare prose. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. James G. Thompson

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensible - a necessary read
If you want to understand the holocaust, how and why it happened, then you need to read If This Is A Man. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. M. D. R. Ghori

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly necessary book
Philip Roth has described this as "one of the century's truly necessary books", and the adjective feels exactly right. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Jeremy Walton

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to recommend, hard to avoid recommending
Where do you start with a book like this? It's brilliantly written, and compelling reading - for the quality of the narrative as much (more?) than the subject matter. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Bezza

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
Beautifully written on subjects only personally witnessed in a personal way with the clinical reporting of a professional chemist. Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2006 by alastair_h

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 star books!!

Primo Levi recounts his time in the concentration camp as someone trying make sense of what is happening around him, and of human nature. Read more
Published on 29 May 2006 by A. Sinclair

5.0 out of 5 stars Just as it was - no more, no less
When I mentioned to a friend of mine that my dad was reading this, he begged to borrow it afterwards. Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2005 by RG

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