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Nobody knows how much I owe that man’, Primo Levi said of the bricklayer who saved his life at Auschwitz. I could never repay him.’ Levi was referring to Lorenzo Perrone, who at great personal risk smuggled food, letters and clothing to Levi and other prisoners. The soup might contain sparrows’ wings, prune stones, or even fragments of pulped newspaper, but it provided Levi with the 500 extra calories he needed to survive each day. Perrone said nothing as he left the mess tin by a half-constructed brick wall. In A Man of Few Words, Carlo Greppi pieces together Levi’s saviour, a near-destitute labourer with minimal formal education. Despite their stark differences, Levi and Perrone’s friendship survived the Holocaust and continued until Perrone’s tragic death. Levi never forgot Perrone. As his friend withdrew from the world, Levi tried persistently to preserve the memory of this man of few words who had saved his life, but who left few traces of his own behind.
Compassionate, worldly and prescient, Greppi brings to light a universal story about an individual who kept hope alive in one of the darkest times and places known to man.
About the author
Carlo Greppi (1982) is a historian at the University of Turin and author of numerous essays on the history of the twentieth century. For Laterza, he is the editor of the series ‘Fact Checking: History Under the Test of Facts’. His latest book is Il Buon Tedesco (2021, Fiuggi History Award 2021; Giacomo Matteotti Award 2022) which sold 10,000+ copies.
Howard Curtis (1949) is a British translator of French, Italian and Spanish fiction. He has translated works by the likes of Gianrico Carofiglio, Lluís Quintana-Murci, Beppe Fenoglio and Georges Simenon. His translations have won the John Florio Prize, Premio Campiello Europa, the Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation, and been shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and Best Translated Book Award among many others.
