In store now! The Drowned and the Saved, by Primo Levi

Finishing off our week of Holocaust memorials, we’re highlighting Primo Levi’s harrowing memoir of survival, The Drowned and the Saved. Written in clear, lucid prose, The Drowned and the Saved is Levi’s first hand account of the horrors of Auschwitz. Whilst he understandably, and tragically, never recovered from the atrocities he witnessed, The Drowned and the Saved highlights the strength of the human spirit to endure against hatred. He refused to indulge in the hatred that was inflicted upon him and those he loved. Memorialising his refusal reminds us that reason endures, even in the darkest of times. He emphasises that we must learn from the past, to “make sense of the senseless.” A harrowing and profoundly moving reading experience. 

Order your copy today directly through October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get a commission on your purchase.

The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi

Paperback £9.99

Shortly after completing The Drowned and the Saved, Primo Levi committed suicide. The manner of his death was sudden, violent and unpremeditated, and there are some who argue that he kiled himself because he was tormented by guilt - guilt that he had survived the horrors of Auschwitz while others, better than he, had gone to the wall. 'The Drowned and the Saved dispels the myth that Primo Levi forgave the Germans for what they did to his people.

He didn't, and couldn't forgive. He refused, however, to indulge in what he called "the bestial vice of hatred" which is an entirely different matter. The voice that sounds in his writing is that of a reasonable man .

. . it warns and reminds us that the unimaginable can happen again.

Order your copy today directly from October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get commission on your purchase.

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