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{en} Ian Thomson (1961-). Primo Levi: A Life. London [England]: Hutchinson; New York, NY [USA]: Metropolitan Books, 2002. <biography>

Translations

• Italian ed. : Primo Levi : una vita (2017).

Abstract

"A profile of the author examines his daily experiences, discussing the impact of such factors as Mussolini's regime, Auschwitz, his difficult reintegration into postwar Italy, and his struggles with depression and insomnia."

Contents

11 April 1987 -- The family before Levi (1819-1919) -- A blackshirt childhood (1919-27) -- An anxious boyhood (1927-34) -- Chemistry and adolescence (1934-7) -- University and persecution (1937-8) -- University and war (1939-41) -- Life during wartime (1941-3) -- Resistance and betrayal (1943) -- Into captivity (1943-4) -- Auschwitz: the laboratory (1944-5) -- Waiting for the Russians (1945) -- Homecoming (1945-6) -- Rebirth and rejection (1946-8) -- Factory responsibilities (1948-53) -- Journeys into Germany (1954-61) -- Literary acclaim (1961-6) -- 'On the other side of the barbed-wire fence' (1966-8) -- Israel, USSR and depression (1968-72) -- Dreams of retirement (1973-6) -- Mapping the world of work (1977-9) -- Reflections on the resistance (1980-2) -- Strife in the Middle East (1982-3) -- Recognition abroad (1983-5) -- America is waiting (1985) -- The prison of 75 corso re umberto (1985) -- In London (1986) -- The downward spiral (1986-7) -- April 1987: the last six days.