Man of Few Words The Bricklayer of Auschwitz Who Saved Primo Levi
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Carlo Greppi (1982) is a historian at the University of Turin and author of numerous essays on the history of the twentieth century. For Laterza, he is the editor of the series ‘Fact Checking: History Under the Test of Facts’. His latest book is Il Buon Tedesco (2021, Fiuggi History Award 2021; Giacomo Matteotti Award 2022) which sold 10,000+ copies. Howard Curtis (1949) is a British translator of French, Italian and Spanish fiction. He has translated works by the likes of Gianrico Carofiglio, Lluís Quintana-Murci, Beppe Fenoglio and Georges Simenon. His translations have won the John Florio Prize, Premio Campiello Europa, the Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation, and been shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and Best Translated Book Award among many others.<p>'[<em>A Man of Few Words</em>] is a meticulously researched biography.'</p>
The Gibraltar Chronicle
‘Nobody knows how much I owe that man,’ Primo Levi said of the bricklayer who saved his life at Auschwitz-Birkenau. For six months, Lorenzo Perrone risked his own life to smuggle food, letters and clothing to prisoners. Without Perrone, Levi could not have survived and the world would have been deprived of his writing.
In A Man of Few Words, Carlo Greppi pieces together the life of Perrone, a near destitute labourer with little formal education. Despite their stark differences, Levi and Perrone’s friendship continued until Perrone’s tragic death. Levi never forgot Perrone. He tried persistently to preserve the memory of this man of few words who had saved his life, but who left few traces of his own behind.
Compassionate, worldly and prescient, Greppi brings to light a universal story about an individual who kept hope alive in one of the darkest times and places known to man.
A Man of Few Words tells the remarkable true story of Lorenzo Perrone, the humble bricklayer who saved Primo Levi’s life in Auschwitz by secretly sharing food. Carlo Greppi traces Perrone’s quiet heroism and lasting friendship with Levi in this moving portrait of courage, dignity and enduring human connection.