I loved this book as Primo Levi is one of my favorite writer. This excellent book bring him back to life as the chilling and fascinating images are amazing.
It's a good way to tell the story of a great writer and one of main witness of the Holocaust.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In this graphic novel, Matteo Mastragostino tells the life story of renowned Italian Jewish chemist, Holocaust survivor, and writer Primo Levi. Accompanied by the haunting illustrations of Alessandro Ranghiasci, Mastragostino draws on historical accounts, interviews, and Levi's own writing to create an intimate portrait of Levi.

Framing the factual events of Levi's life inside a fictionalized classroom visit was a really effective way to have more control of the narrative. Mastragostino was able to delve deeper into the lasting impacts of what Levi experienced and highlight the importance of remembering, which may not have been captured as well in a simple direct telling of the events. Mastragostino's writing is elevated by Ranghiasci's expressive and powerful art style, which portrayed the atrocities and the horrors Levi faced in a stirring and unforgettable way.

I would recommend this to young readers and adult readers alike. I would also consider this as a resource for teachers teaching WWII and the Holocaust.

This graphic novel brings one of the most important stories of this past century to life in a brilliant way: by not only putting it in a format that is appealing to younger readers, but by aiming the storyline at young people.

The story involves Primo visiting a school and telling his story (from “Survival in Auschwitz”) to the young students, who often interrupt and ask common questions people have about the Holocaust (like, “Why didn’t you fight back?”) Primo calmly explains his story and that of his friends and comrades in the resistance and in the camps.

This novel is not an exact retelling of his autobiography but it does immense justice to his work and would be a great addition to any school library. It is an easy read for adults and would be very educational for readers of any age, who wish to learn about the Holocaust and the Italian experience and resistance.

Details Primo Levi's time in Auschwitz concentration camp as an Italian jew. It's a harrowing account with a framing sequence where he's talking to kids at a school about his ordeal. The children's reactions add to the drama of the story. The art was a bit quirky but worked well with the story.

Primo Levi was an Italian Jewish man who survived a Nazi concentration camp during WWII. This graphic novel tells Primo's story through Primo himself. In this novel Primo goes to a school classroom to talk with the students about his experience. The writer and illustrator do not hold back on the details and some of the images are hard to see even though they are drawings. Primo's story is one of hope and help in the face of horror.
I have heard Primo's name before (or thought I had) but was not familiar with any of his story so this was a great way to learn some of it. In the US some might be familiar with Elie Wiezel's holocaust experience but not as familiar with others. These are stories that need to continue to be told and in various formats and this graphic novel does a good job of that.

I hadn’t heard of Primo Levi before reading this graphic novel. Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist, partisan, Holocaust survivor and writer. The narrative device used to frame Levi’s life story is Levi visiting a class of school children to speak to them about the Holocaust and his time in a concentration camp.

Arranging the story this way cleverly negates the clumsy exposition often found in a history book. It is natural for Levi to explain what happened to him and his family and why. Levi is portrayed as a charming and determined man who is steadfast in his mission that the past not repeat itself. Mastragostino decision to have the children ask questions of Levi as to why he did or did not do certain things is impactful, as are their reactions when Levi recounts the hardships he underwent.

Ranghiasci art is purposeful and fluid, capturing moments of grief and solace with equal adeptness. They have a knack for drawing highly expressive faces. Despite the grimness of the subject matter, it is a smooth graphic novel to read. The text never overshadows the monochrome illustrations. There are sections of the book that feature drawings of dead Holocaust victims that are difficult to look at.

Overall, Primo Levi is a striking written and enthrallingly illustrated biography of a remarkable man that went through so much. It is the sort of book that acts as a perfect jumping-off point for someone looking to learn more about the Jewish experience in Italy during WW2. Levi’s attempt to resist fascist forces by joining the partisans is something that I’ll definitely be doing further reading on.

I enjoy graphic novel memoirs/biographies and this was no difference. It does an excellent job of telling his heart breaking story and his ultimate survival.

Nicely done look at one of the most interesting writers of the 20th Century. Trained as a chemist, his experiences during the Holocaust, helped to frame his philosophy and writing for the rest of his life.

His work in both fiction and his essays examined the lives of those who fought and died during the period leading up to the Second World War and beyond. Why did some survive the horrors of the camps, while others could not? His novel, If Not Now When, followed a group of Jewish partisans, as they tried to escape across Nazi occupied Europe to the allied territories and finally Palestine.

This book has the writer talking to a group of school children, telling them of his youth and later hardships. Inspiring and hopefully an introduction that the reader will use to actually begin reading the author's works.

This book is very emotional despite how short it is. Despite not being very graphic, the art and the writing work well to show how violated dehumanized the characters were. I also really appreciate the portrayal of children in this book. They reacted very realistically to an adult speaker of a very serious topic. I wish this book had been a little longer. Levi talks about how luck allowed him to survive the Holocaust but we don’t actually find out how he was able to leave the concentration camp.

Beautiful and touching. Simple and clear.
A graphic novel about Primo Levi talking about world war II and concentration camps to an elementary school class..
Great black and white illustrations.

Primo Levi is a graphic novel about the eponymous writer's experience in Auschwitz, which he recounts to a class of elementary school students.

Although Primo is telling the story for a class period, it comes off as though he's reliving the trauma all over again, from joining the resistance to enduring the camp. There are bright spots to balance the heavy emotional weight of Primo's Holocaust story--we have the children in the classroom, and a man named Lorenzo who helps Primo survive in Auschwitz.

However, possibly due to the nature of graphic novel, the end about why Primo (and other Holocaust survivors) tell their stories fell flat for me; it didn't feel like a natural conversation but an unnecessary moral. The section with Lello also felt out of place; I guess it was a flashback to wondering why they survived, but it seemed like a hard transition from being in the classroom.

Overall, it was a good graphic novel with an important message, but there were parts that could have been done better. Will definitely be picking up books by Primo Levi the future.

Primo Levi was a harrowing read, although it too left me with plenty to contemplate. First published in Italian, this slim volume by writer Matteo Mastragostino and artist Allesandro Ranghiasci will be published in English by Between the Lines in March. In this black and white graphic novel, Levi talks about his experiences during World War II to an elementary school class, with each turn of the conversation leading naturally into a flashback. The children aren’t too impressed with him at the outset, but Levi doesn’t simply narrate facts, he explains their meaning, and as the conversation continues they begin to get it. which makes this graphic novel a fascinating and thought-provoking read. Mastragostino explains in his afterword that he was 10 years old when Levi died, and he decided to structure the book as if Levi was talking to him as a child. He also discusses the decisions he made about the story, and notes that Ranghiasci did extensive visual research in order to accurately depict Levi’s surroundings. The art is black and white and fairly loose, as if it was rendered in pencil, but it complements the story perfectly, amplifying the emotional impact of Levi’s narrative of his Holocaust experiences.

A highly successful collaboration between author, illustrator, and translator allows English language readers access to this intimate look at the personal devastation left in the wake of World War II. Primo Levi was an Italian teenager who joined the resistance, was arrested, and was taken to Auschwitz. Because of his education and scientific expertise, he was fortunate enough to have job duties in laboratory, a position which, along with the assistance of an outside sympathizer, saved his life.

This graphic novel tells Levi’s story in a way that conveys the weight he carried for the remainder of his life, both the emotional trauma and the burning need to educate the world regarding the atrocities he witnessed. The artistry is complex and haunting, startlingly realistic in places. The line between the present and the past becomes as blurred for the reader as for the character of Levi as he tells of his experiences. Overall, it is an impactful graphic novel with relevance for a wide readership.

Thank you to Matteo Mastragostino, Alessandro Ranghiasci, Alberto Toscano, Between the Lines, and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This graphic novel features Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor, speaking to young students at his former primary school. At first the students grudgingly accept Primo Levi as a speaker, dismissing him as just an on old man.
But as Levi describes his experiences the children become engrossed. At the end of his lecture Levi states that he and other Holocaust survivors fear the time when none are left to tell their story. They fear that people will forget and that horrible history will not be believed, forgotten, or repeated. Books like this are urgently needed to keep this from happening.

This graphic novel is well-researched and the Art is shockingly unforgettable, provoking readers to empathy and understanding.

I was given an early release copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the comic, with it's framing story of Levi talking to an elementary school class and frequent flashbacks to his ordeal in the concentration camps. The comic really got across the horror as well as the lifelong effects of the bureaucratic, industrialized genocide of the Holocaust. Where things went a little sideways was in the afterwards, which I felt diminished the emotional impact of the story with an over intellectualization of Levi's life and death. On the whole though, an effecting and effective comic.

Primo Levi
By Matteo Mastragostino, Illustrated by Alessandro Ranghiasci, Translated by Alberto Toscano
Between the Lines
136 pages
**This is an ARC provided by NetGalley for book reviews. Available for purchase on March 22nd, 2021.**

A group of school children wait in their classroom to meet a war hero. One of the kids says to the other that he might be a superman. Their teacher says the man used to go to school here and he has come to tell them a story. The children are excited and eager but when they see an old bespectacled man enter the classroom they are surprised. A war hero? Him? He wasn’t the superman they were expecting. That man is Primo Levi (1919–1987). And he tells all of us the story of his life. The story of how he was captured by the Nazis, sent to Auschwitz, faced the heinous brutalities of the German captors, and how lucky he was to be rescued by the Russian troops.
The graphic novel Primo Levi was originally published in Italian in 2017 by Becco Giallo publications. Thanks to Between the Lines publications, now we have the English translation by Alberto Toscano. Script written by Matteo Mastragostino and harrowing sketches by Alessandro Ranghiasci, the graphic narrative is a short yet impactful story about Levi’s life and the importance of keeping the truth of the Holocaust alive by weaving the children’s innocent questions through the story.
Levi recounts how his chemistry education played a crucial role in his survival. He was given a position in the chemical laboratory. He had the company of Alberto Dalla Volta(1921–1945) at Auschwitz who was his best friend. While Alberto did not survive the camp, Levi would write about his friend’s strength and compassion years later in his books. Lorenzo Perrone(1904–1952) and Lello Perugia(1919–2010) were two other friends who helped Levi at the camp with food, clothes, company and the comfort of speaking in their common tongue. The conversations are written in German sometimes which creates a state of disorientation for the reader who doesn’t understand the tongue. Levi explains to the children that not knowing and understanding German led to the isolation of many Italians. They were alone and could not make others understand themselves making them weak eventually causing their deaths.
The helplessness of the captured people in their claustrophobic encampments and their mental and physical suffering is shown by the use of harsh, erratic, and dense line hatchings. The artist is successful is emoting the blackness of the souls using the volume and density of his hatching lines. They add depth to the darkness like a bottomless pit.
A short graphic narrative has left me quite thoughtful last evening. Quoting Levi will be an apt way to express how deeply moved I was after finishing the book.

“Auschwitz is outside of us, but it is all around us, in the air. The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers and it would be foolish to deny it. Rejection of human solidarity, obtuse and cynical indifference to the suffering of others, abdication of the intellect and of moral sense to the principle of authority, and above all, at the root of everything, a sweeping tide of cowardice, a colossal cowardice which masks itself as warring virtue, love of country and faith in an idea.”
― Primo Levi, The Black Hole of Auschwitz

When I saw <i>Primo Levi</i> pop up on NetGalley I immediately requested it because I wasn't familiar with who he was. In the U.S. school system, the more common Holocaust texts are the works of Elie Wiesel, Art Spiegelman and of course <i>The Diary of Anne Frank</i>.

This graphic novel is a great introduction to Primo Levi's life and his work. At the end of the book Mastragostino states that his graphic novel is not a retelling of Levi's books, but an overview, and I think he does a good job of doing that. The graphic novel does a good job of bringing Levi's story to a modern and younger audience. The art of the graphic novel is black and white, staggering at times but never grotesque or exploitative towards the victims in the camp so it could be read by younger readers.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC of this book.

I grew up in a predominately Jewish neighborhood. We were the very large Catholic German family. I would go around the neighborhood and earn money doing chores for the elderly neighbors. Unlike most kids I listened, with great interest, to a lot of the stories these elderly neighbors were itching to tell. In this there was a lot of Holocaust stories. This was all before I discovered Primo Levi. It was at University when I took a Holocaust class that I discovered Mr. Levi. Since that time I had read every thing he had written. It would only be logical that I read a book about him and then even more logical that this book be in graphic novel form. I say the latter because in the same course that I discovered Mr. Levi I had also discovered Maus. This form of conveying the story is brilliant. It is harder to convey the horrors and trials of the events described in simple text. I feel with simple text ones sense are, to a degree, dulled. Yet with the graphic novel one has the text and the images at the ready. True, at times ones own imagination could conjure up a worse scene that an image on paper. But I feel with this topic most of us do not want to see that horror. The graphic novel gives us no choice, there it is.
My only real criticism is that I felt the dialogue was difficult to follow at times. It did not flow as easily as it should have. Granted this is not done with final editing. Maybe this was done to save space, I am not sure. My other complaint is that it was not longer. I like the concept of hearing about his story a he spoke to school children. But I wanted more, I felt that they left massive gaps in the story. In my opinion I would liked to have seen this story completed in two books, each a bit longer than this current project. All that being said it was a great read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I was very interested in receiving a copy of this graphic novel due to its important subject material. I've read most of Primo Levi's works and have written several academic papers on them. He is best known for Survival in Auschwitz, The Periodic Table, The Drowned and the Saved, If Not Now, When?, and many more important writings.

This book is about the Jewish, Italian writer, Primo Levi, and his survival in Auschwitz. For anyone not familiar with Primo Levi, this graphic novel does an excellent job telling his story. The art style fits the horrifying and serious tone of the events of the Holocaust. The visuals are intense and do a great job eliciting the appropriate emotions from the reader. Though it is not a long book, this memoir not only serves as an introduction to the life of Primo Levi, but also shows why its critical that these accounts continue to be told. One quote from the book states, "Every passing day there's fewer of us to bear the weight of the memory of Auschwitz because even today our greatest fear remains the same. That we won't be believed, that everything will be forgotten.". I spent a lot of time thinking on this, and wondering whether we are doing enough to make sure this doesn't happen.

The story was told beautifully throughout the book. It moves between Primo Levi's experiences in during the war and Auschwitz, to an older Primo Levi telling his story to a group of schoolchildren. This kind of storytelling does a wonderful job of showing how the horrors he witnessed and was subjected to, became a weight he would carry throughout the rest of his life. By telling this story in a graphic novel, the writer was able to make it easy to read and more accessible to a larger audience that might be intimidated by the subject matter. Even though it is told as a comic, it still keeps the serious tone of these events. I couldn't recommend this book enough.

A good introduction to the war experiences of Italian writer Primo Levi and his time in Auschwitz. The art style suits the story especially in the depiction of the starving people, enhancing the horror greatly. The end notes on how the story was adapted along with the timeline and list of characters give one many avenues to do more reading on the subject. The book uses Levi speaking to a class of school children as a framing device though the visuals of the graphic novel may be too intense for younger ones.

The quote at the end seems especially relevant today, "If understanding is impossible, knowing is necessary, because what happened can return, consciences can be seduced and darkened again--even our own."

A worthwhile addition and a good place to start when learning more about the Holocaust and the full depravity of what occurred.