saprophytes, birds of day and night, creepers, butterflies, crickets, and fungi. Primo Levi emerged not only as one of the most profound and haunting commentators on the Holocaust but also as a great writer on many twentieth-century themes. Here is an anthology of writings that he considered to be essential reading. As Peter Forbes says in his Introduction, In the context of the twenty-first century, all of Levi's choices are striking; they exhibit a kind of chastened curiosity rare in our time, and an undiminished sense of wonder and horror at a universe that has such things in it. Most of the pieces, as Levi comments, reflect the fundamental dichotomies that face us all. Many have their roots in Levi's experience of Auschwitz, and in their startling juxtaposition they give the impression of a world turned upside down. One of the most important Italian writers. —Umberto Eco

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