Other People's Trades

It is really unfortunate that this book is out of print now, it deserves to be reissued and widely read. Those who know of Primo Levi only know, for the most part, that he was a partisan, was a survivior of Auschwitz, a chemist, and died, a likely suicide. All of these are true. However, there is more to Primo Levi than those stark facts, and this book makes them abundantly clear. Levi had many interests, a lively curiosity, and was an excellent writer. Think Stephen Jay Gould or Lewis Thomas as a passionate Italian, and you're close.He does not mention his time at Auschwitz in this book. He writes about his youth, the apartment building in Turin he always lived in, about his experiences with primitive personal computers/word preocessors, his trip upon a submarine, and so much more.