Book description
In his final book before his death, Primo Levi returns once more to his time at Auschwitz in a moving meditation on memory, resiliency, and the struggle to comprehend unimaginable tragedy.
Drawing on history, philosophy, and his own personal experiences, Levi asks if we have already begun to forget about…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Drowned and the Saved as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
An indelible scene: Several Auschwitz prisoners clear rubble from a dark, bombed-out basement. It’s a blisteringly hot August 1944. There is no drinkable water, none. While “hunger exhausts, thirst enrages.” Primo Levi spots a section of broken pipe against a far wall with a spigot near the floor. It holds perhaps a quart of water. He can easily drink it all himself. Or should he share with his best mate? Or with the entire work crew? (Read the book to find out.)
No one writes of the dilemmas of survival more cogently than Primo Levi. A chemist by training, Levi…
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