Self-Control | Primo Levi | Granta Magazine

Self-Control

Primo Levi

Translated by Simon Rees & Antonio Tanca

‘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.’

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.

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Translated by Simon Rees

Simon Rees is a librettist, writer and translator working from Italian, French and German. His novels include The Devil’s Looking-Glass, Nathaniel and Mrs Palmer and Making a Snowman. He was dramaturg at the Welsh National Opera from 1989 to 2012, and has also written operas, poetry collections, plays, lyrics and librettos.

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Translated by Antonio Tanca

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