Moments of Reprieve: Primo Levi

Primo Levi was one of the most astonishing voices to emerge from the twentieth century: a man who survived one of the ugliest times in history, yet who was able to describe his own Auschwitz experience with an unaffected tenderness.

Levi was a master storyteller but he did not write fairytales. These stories are an elegy to the human figures who stood out against the tragic background of Auschwitz, `the ones in whom I had recognized the will and capacity to react, and hence a rudiment of virtue`. Each centres on an individual who - whether it be through a juggling trick, a slice of apple or a letter - discovers one of the `bizarre, marginal moments of reprieve`.