A review by eat_a_lemon
If This Is a Man by Primo Levi

challenging informative sad medium-paced

5.0

A visceral, vivid, haunting, yet so very human depiction of humanity when faced with some of the worst horrors known to man. The way each scene is laid out is captivating, the straightforward tone speaking of each suffering, death, and misery in a clearly empathetic and powerful way was some of the most beautiful writing I've seen in modern literature. There's something so intricate and tender in the way death is described - the deaths of many is a fleeting thing, a number dwindling down from a hundred to forty; but the death of one man is slow, agonising, long, and insurmountable, just as prolonged and filled with effort as his life was. If This Is a Man answers its own question so poignantly and beautifully. A man lives. A man dreams. A man thinks and hopes for better. Without those things, there is no longer a man. 

I can't recommend this book enough.