If This Is a Man and The Truce
by Primo Levi
List Price:
Our Price: $12.52
You Save: $3.43 (22%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.76 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Primo LeviTranslator: Stuart Woolf
Introduction: Paul Bailey
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-07-04
ISBN: 0349100136
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Book Reviews of If This Is a Man and The Truce
Book Review: A Really Great and Important Book
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Biographies & Memoirs Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Biographies & Memoirs Books
I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Storyby Hank Aaron, Lonnie Wheeler
Harpercollins; Published: 1991-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.71
Price in other shops:
Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Againby Drew Pinsky
William Morrow; Published: 2003-08-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.40
Price in other shops:
The Last Season (P.S.)by Eric Blehm
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.54
Price in other shops:
The Last Seasonby Eric Blehm
Harper; Published: 2006-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Truck: A Love Story (P.S.)by Michael Perry
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
My Grandfather's Son: A Memoirby Clarence Thomas
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritansby Eve LaPlante
HarperOne; Published: 2004-03-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
100 Missions North/ a Fighter Pilot's Story of the Vietnam Warby Kenneth H. Bell
Brassey's Inc; Published: 1993-04; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Macmillan Profiles: Villains & Outlawsby Et Al
MacMillan Reference Books; Published: 1998-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.93
Price in other shops:
Hawk : Occupation Skateboarderby Tony; Mortimer, Sean Hawk
Regan Books; Published: 2000; Hardcover; Book
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Search For Roots: A Personal Anthologyby Primo Levi
Ivan R Dee; Published: 2003-03-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
Moments of Reprieve: A Memoir of Auschwitz (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)by Primo Levi
Penguin Classics; Published: 1995-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.45
Price in other shops:
The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Dayby Elie Wiesel
Hill and Wang; Published: 2008-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
The Shawlby Cynthia Ozick
Vintage; Published: 1990-08-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.26
Price in other shops:
The Periodic Tableby Primo Levi
Everyman's Library; Published: 1996-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.94
Price in other shops:
If Not Now, When? (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)by Primo Levi
Penguin Classics; Published: 1995-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
The Reawakeningby Primo Levi
Touchstone; Published: 1995-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.57
Price in other shops:
The Periodic Tableby Primo Levi
Schocken; Published: 1995-04-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.90
Price in other shops:
The Drowned and the Savedby Primo Levi
Vintage; Published: 1989-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops:
Survival In Auschwitzby Primo Levi
Touchstone; Published: 1996-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops: