The Periodic Table

It's good to find this most original book in print again this year. Levi, a young Italian, academically a chemist, could not, as a Jew in Fascist Italy, use his degree, though summa cum laude, for work. He joined the Resistance, was betrayed, and spent from 1943 to the war's end in Auschwitz. The full account, which must be read, is in his If This Is A Man, one of the great works of the twentieth century. Levi had found that writing had something in common with chemistry - the need for exactness, daring and discovery, the creating of something new and alive out of sullen, even noxious material. But The Periodic Table, with its deceptive lightness, gives little of the camp. Each of the 21 elements prompts an episode, usually in Levi's life. Never mind the order - I recommend starting with Iron. It gives not only the young Levi's passion for chemistry, but one of the most brilliant of his verbal portraits, here of Sandro, a fellow student. Read it, pass onwards, or take in Cerium, a rare camp piece. Tormented by hunger, Levi and his close friend Alberto devise a means of briefly securing a daily piece of bread. Will it keep them alive until the Russians come? Stranger still is 'Vanadium'. Some 20 years later, in business letters from a German firm, Levi recognizes the name and writing of his one-time Nazi camp overseer. Should he (outside business) make contact? He does - letters are exchanged. Then... Read one work by Levi and you will search for more. Add to your list Moments of Reprieve as well as If This is a Man Review by Naomi Lewis (Kirkus UK)