'So it happens, therefore, that every element says something to someone'

Inspired by the rhythms of the Periodic Table, Primo Levi assesses his life in terms of the chemical elements he associates with his past. From his birth into an Italian Jewish family through his training as a chemist, to the pain and darkness of the Holocaust and its aftermath, Levi reflects on the difficult course of his life in this heartfelt and deeply moving book.

Written with characteristically understated eloquence, The Periodic Table is one of the key testaments of the last century.

'Wonderfully daring . . . Its extraordinary shifts of tone, from learned scientific treatise to epic war narrative, reflect Levi's eclectic reading and mesmeric story-telling gifts'- Ian Thomson, Guardian