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If This Is a Man and The Truce Paperback – July 4, 2003

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,360 ratings

With the moral stamina and intellectual pose of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, duitful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose. He was profoundly in touch with the minutest workings of the most endearing human events and with the most contempible. What has survived in Levi's writing isn't just his memory of the unbearable, but also, in THE PERIODIC TABLE and THE WRENCH, his delight in what made the world exquisite to him. He was himself a "magically endearing man, the most delicately forceful enchanter I've ever known" - PHILIP ROTH
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A life-changing book.―Daily Express

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

THE TRUCE:―
'One of the century's truly necessary books.â??

Philip Roth―
'One of the greatest human testaments of the era.â??

About the Author

Primo Levi was born in Turin in 1919 and trained as chemist. Arrested a member of the anti-fascist resistance during the war, he was deported to Auschwitz. His experiences there are described in his two classic autobiographical works, IF THIS IS A MAN and THE TRUCE.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abacus; New Ed edition (July 4, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0349100136
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0349100135
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.5 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,360 ratings

About the author

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Primo Levi
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Primo Michele Levi (Italian: [ˈpriːmo ˈlɛːvi]; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, novels, collections of short stories, essays, and poems. His best-known works include If This Is a Man (1947) (U.S.: Survival in Auschwitz), his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland; and his unique work, The Periodic Table (1975), linked to qualities of the elements, which the Royal Institution of Great Britain named the best science book ever written.

Levi died in 1987 from injuries sustained in a fall from a third-story apartment landing. While his death was officially ruled a suicide, some evidence supports the possibility that the fall was accidental.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
2,360 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They appreciate the author's humanity and writing style as a witness. The book provides an insightful account of human nature and how men behaved in extreme conditions. Many readers consider it essential reading for everyone. However, some feel the pacing is slow and boring.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

44 customers mention "Readability"44 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They describe it as a powerful read with an excellent tone. Readers praise the story as compelling without being addictive, and recommend it for everyone.

"...It’s a fascinating read...." Read more

"...He was obviously a very intelligent man. These books are very restrained and humane, towards all the people in them, even the evil-doing Germans...." Read more

"...quite the essential document that IF THIS IS A MAN is, it too is well worth reading...." Read more

"...Levi's "If This Is Man." This book has been one of my favorite books for well over a decade now...." Read more

34 customers mention "Writing quality"29 positive5 negative

Customers enjoy the book's writing. They find the prose lively and flowing smoothly. The author writes with true humanity, describing his deportation as a witness would. They describe it as a wonderful read with lovely language and a great presentation. Overall, readers praise the book as an essential read and a masterpiece.

"...IF THIS IS A MAN - With spare but lively prose, Levi recounts his deportation, confinement, and improbable survival within Auschwitz...." Read more

"A truly wonderful book by a great author...." Read more

"...What impacted me more was how the author wrote with true humanity and an absolute lack of apology...." Read more

"...He writes almost poetic - but not. His words flow beautifully together - yet he is describing one of the most horrific events that occurred in our..." Read more

33 customers mention "Insight"33 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and heart-wrenching. They say it provides a powerful testament of the human spirit and ability to survive. Readers describe it as a fascinating tale that offers lessons into what unites us all.

"...It explores the fundamental truths that will always (eventually) triumph over our darker inner natures...." Read more

"...This is also a fascinating tale and follows on naturally: If This Is a Man ends with the arrival of the Russians to liberate the Auschwitz Lager..." Read more

"...It is a fascinating and instructive kaleidoscopic picture of the displaced peoples throughout Eastern Europe in the months immediately following..." Read more

"Intersting book. Not the easiest to read as it is more literary than many books...." Read more

15 customers mention "Reading requirement"12 positive3 negative

Customers find the book an engaging read with lovely language. They say it's essential reading for everyone and should be required for WWII studies.

"...This important book is written magnificently and should be required reading in WW2 studies...." Read more

"...It is definitely a must read book." Read more

"Must be read by everyone. A non accusatory witness to the worst event in the history of mankind. Difficult to read and impossible to comprehend." Read more

"A great book. Should be required reading for all people...." Read more

5 customers mention "Pacing"5 positive0 negative

Customers like the book's pacing. They find it moving, riveting, and intense. The writing is well-crafted.

"...Primo's 2 books in this combined volume were extraordinarily moving and interesting...." Read more

"Primo Levi's account of his experiences in Auschwitz are as compelling and insightful as Viktor Frankl's holocaust writing. A must read." Read more

"Riveting, intense, extremely well written." Read more

"Moving." Read more

4 customers mention "Boredom"0 positive4 negative

Customers find the book boring and plodding. They mention it has too much useless content, a terrible binding, and is overly circumstantial.

"...But this book is boring and reads slowly and plodingly. Maybe it's the translation.....I don't know...." Read more

"...is excellent but the binding on the Abacus published book is absolutely terrible...." Read more

"Too much useless stuff , he was trying to be too creative at expressing his experience , too much mud in his technique , personal preference , I..." Read more

"could not get into this one,found it quite boring,Gave up after about 5th chapter" Read more

Great book, terrible binding!
1 out of 5 stars
Great book, terrible binding!
The book is excellent but the binding on the Abacus published book is absolutely terrible. I'm on page 85 and the pages are literally falling out of the book. Buy this book from a different publisher.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2013
    IF THIS IS A MAN is the British title of what was curiously published in the US as SURVIVING AUSCHWITZ. This edition is divided between Levi’s story of survival in the camp and, in THE TRUCE, his circuitous journey from Auschwitz back to his home in Turin. I’m dividing my review into corresponding halves.

    IF THIS IS A MAN - With spare but lively prose, Levi recounts his deportation, confinement, and improbable survival within Auschwitz. No matter how dispiriting his situation, Levi never stoops to outright hopelessness. There’s something between the words that glows. He creates a tableau of barbarism and humanity enmeshed within each other. The characters he draws are intensely vivid and precisely rendered. This book deserves its place in the canon. In Levi, humanity found someone to record our darkest chapter, someone who can transport a reader with descriptions such as “[T]he Buna is desperately and essentially opaque and grey. The huge entanglement of iron, concrete, mud, and smoke is the negation of beauty…Within its bounds, not a blade of grass grows, and the soil is impregnated with the poisonous saps of coal and petroleum, and the only things alive are the machines and slaves - and the former more alive than the latter.” Has anything so dark been illuminated with such delicate, flawless language? IF THIS IS A MAN will endure, and outlive all of us. It’s a book that brings out the spirit of what it means to be alive amid so much death. It explores the fundamental truths that will always (eventually) triumph over our darker inner natures. This is a book you’ll return to again and again.

    THE TRUCE - The companion piece in this volume reveals Levi’s slow, tortuous journey back to freedom. It’s a fascinating read. We think of history in connected blocks - e.g. WWII ended when Germany capitulated, end of story - but there’s much more to it, as Levi reveals. Just because the Russians had chased the SS from the death camps didn’t mean the survivors’ ordeal was over. Europe smoldered, and confusion had settled atop the ruins. Levi still has to form alliances and find food. This book doesn’t have as many breathtaking moments as IF THIS IS A MAN, but it’s still an important work. It’s easy to forget that history is actually countless small, individual stories that cohere into something larger. THE TRUCE brings out those small moments among people who were at the mercy of history, but, thanks to Primo Levi, have been memorialized and rendered immortal. Their stories survive.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2008
    A truly wonderful book by a great author. In this volume you get Levi's If This Is a Man, his story of his trials in one of the satellite camps of Auschwitz, and The Truce, the story of his long journey from Auschwitz back home to Turin. In the "Afterword" included with this edition (Abacus edition of 1987) you also have Levi's answers to the questions his readers had posed to him over the years. These are also revealing.

    I've read many books about the Holocaust and WWII. I could not put this one down. I picked this up after reading Levi's The Periodic Table (also excellent). Here, Levi bears witness to the horrors of the Lager system of Nazi Germany. He is very specific about bearing witness. This is not a history or a commentary, though he does give his opinions. You can't call this a memoir really: it is testimony. In The Truce, he describes the long, strange journey he took back to Italy, through Poland, Russia, Bjelorus, Ukraine, Rumania, Hungary, Austria, and Germany, in the care of, mostly, the Russians. This is also a fascinating tale and follows on naturally: If This Is a Man ends with the arrival of the Russians to liberate the Auschwitz Lager and you want to know how he gets home and gets on with his life.

    Levi was a master story teller. You just want to keep reading and hear what will happen next. He was obviously a very intelligent man. These books are very restrained and humane, towards all the people in them, even the evil-doing Germans. Levi states that he does not want revenge and doesn't hate the Germans. His concern was that civilized people everywhere do not allow this to happen again. (We've let him down there: Cambodia, Myanmar, Rwanda, The Balkans, Darfur, ...)

    I've read numerous books on the Holocaust, and I find some of them just too tough (emotionally) to read (especially after my kids came along), for example The Nazi Doctors. Levi tells you the bad stuff but somehow makes it bearable and a thoroughly wonderful read.

    When I finished this book, I was very moved by my admiration for the humanity of Levi (not to mention the wonderful writing.) I kept repeating to myself, "that was a real man ..." Too bad we lost him at such a young age.
    28 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Mrs Wrighty
    5.0 out of 5 stars An important read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2025
    It’s really important that we remember the harrowing experiences of those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis and hear the voices of those who survived. An excellent read. At school we learned about the Holocaust but not about the return home at the end, for those who survived. A fascinating and utterly sad read as well.
  • Kermit
    4.0 out of 5 stars Para clase
    Reviewed in Spain on January 19, 2022
    Caro
  • Curatorofmemories
    5.0 out of 5 stars Holocaust memoir
    Reviewed in India on January 15, 2021
    A moving first-hand account of the Auschwitz survivor. Primo Levi, the chemist from Turin was one of the three from group of 650 who survived. This is actually two books- The first (If this is a man) describes his experiences while at Auschwitz while the second (The Truce) is his journey back home after being liberated. As a reader you will be numbed reading his hellish experience and the systematic degradation human beings were subjected to. Through a Q&A section in the end he tries to address some of the question’s readers may have after having read the book. The book will disturb you and force you to question- How could this really happen?
    Customer image
    Curatorofmemories
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Holocaust memoir

    Reviewed in India on January 15, 2021
    A moving first-hand account of the Auschwitz survivor. Primo Levi, the chemist from Turin was one of the three from group of 650 who survived. This is actually two books- The first (If this is a man) describes his experiences while at Auschwitz while the second (The Truce) is his journey back home after being liberated. As a reader you will be numbed reading his hellish experience and the systematic degradation human beings were subjected to. Through a Q&A section in the end he tries to address some of the question’s readers may have after having read the book. The book will disturb you and force you to question- How could this really happen?
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    Customer image
  • SH
    5.0 out of 5 stars An important book to read
    Reviewed in Germany on September 14, 2019
    A very hard book to read but something that should be mandatory in later schoolyears. The book shows us what horrible things we are capable off and is a good reminder to build strength and integrity in ourself and those around us.
  • Deborah Shayne
    5.0 out of 5 stars If This is a Man
    Reviewed in Italy on April 7, 2019
    One of the classics Italian literature. Beautifully written and a memorable account of a journey to Hell and back.