Primo Levi | Granta Magazine

Primo Levi

Primo Levi (1919–1987) was an Italian writer and chemist. In 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz, an experience he addressed in the memoir If This Is a Man and the essay collection The Drowned and the Saved, as well as in other works. His story collection The Periodic Table was named by the Royal Institution of Great Britain as the best science book ever.

Primo Levi on Granta.com

Essays & Memoir | Issue 18 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 18 padlock

Tadpoles

Primo Levi

‘It was a harsh and brutal puberty: the tiny creatures began to fret, as if an inner sense had forewarned them of the torment in store’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 18
Essays & Memoir | Issue 18

Weightless

Primo Levi

‘What I would like to experience most of all would be to find myself freed, even if only for a moment, from the weight of my body.’ Primo Levi on floating.

Essays & Memoir | Issue 18 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 18 padlock

From Lab To Writing Desk

Primo Levi

‘I had not aimed for literary celebrity, and I felt at ease with myself for having done my civic duty as a witness, and felt relieved of the burden of slavery.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 18 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 18 padlock

Children of The Wind

Primo Levi

‘Today Kaenunu is largely deserted. On Mahui, on the other hand, it is not unusual for anyone with patience and good vision to catch sight of some atoula.’

Fiction | Issue 18 padlock
Fiction | Issue 18 padlock

Self-Control

Primo Levi

‘He'd have to keep an eye on his liver now, the way you do with cars, if you want them to last: regular washing and greasing, an eye cast over the electrics, the injectors, all the pumps, the battery and the brakes.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 18 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 18 padlock

Chromium

Primo Levi

‘Life is full of customs whose roots can no longer be traced ... but in any event, why were pig's feet obligatory with lentils, and cheese on macaroni?’

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