by Primo Levi
First published 2005
Primo Levi, a young Italian Jew, is arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Stripped of his identity, Levi fights to retain his humanity in the face of unimaginable horrors. As he witnesses the systematic extermination of his people, Levi must grapple with the question: How can such evil exist? Levi's powerful memoir reveals the stark realities of the Holocaust, where the will to live is stretched to its limits. In the end, Levi's story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and a chilling reminder of the depths to which humanity can sink.
Genres: holocaust, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: resilience, survival
Setting: Auschwitz
Period: 20th-century
199 pages · Kindle Edition · Polity
Content warnings: death, violence