This complete works is a real gem, published in a very nice three volume box set which I will no doubt return to in the years to come. For now, I've started with "If This Is a Man" (published in the US as [b:Survival in Auschwitz|6174|Survival in Auschwitz|Primo Levi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1414374949l/6174._SX50_.jpg|851110], much to the annoyance of its original English translator, Stuart J. Woolf). This book gives a vivid account of the year Levi spent as prisoner 174517 in Auschwitz. It is extremely well written, and gives the reader a real sense (to the extent of what is possible without having experienced it) of what it was like to try to survive is this death camp. This edition has some additional updates from Woolf and includes an Appendix by Levi, originally written in 1976 for the school edition, in which he answers questions he received continually from both student and adult readers. ( )

I have never tried to tackle any sort of Completed Works by any author but so glad I took this on. Vol I & II done, the best so far is the novel, If Not Now, When? at the end of Vol II. Excellent translation, moving life story. I wish I could have met Primo Levi in person. ( )

The Complete Works of Primo Levi is a very highly recommended three volume set of the works of Primo Levy. Years in the making, this set represents a monumental endeavor and fitting tribute to Primo Levy. This is the definitive English translation collection.

Known to English-speaking readers mainly for his writings on the Holocaust, Primo Levy "did not want to be characterized only as a Holocaust writer, and the label does him a regrettable injustice, for he was also a prolific writer of stories, essays, novels, and poems, on a wide range of scientific, literary, and autobiographical subjects."

As the introduction from the editor says, "These new volumes, by presenting Levi in all his facets, will enable English-speaking readers to encounter for the first time the entire range of his versatile, inventive, curious, crystalline intelligence, will enable English-speaking readers to enrich their knowledge of Levi. In doing so, they will discover a writer they may not have known, one whom Italo Calvino called among 'the most important and gifted writers of our time.'" The volumes are arrange chronologically and contain many works that were hard to find or previously left untranslated into English. There are notes from the translators after many of the selections.

The three volumes include:

VOLUME I
Editor's Introduction
Ann Goldstein Chronology
Ernesto Ferrero Editor's Acknowledgments
1. IF THIS IS A MAN Translated by Stuart Woolf
2. THE TRUCE Translated by Ann Goldstein
3. NATURAL HISTORIES Translated by Jenny McPhee
4. FLAW OF FORM Translated by Jenny McPhee

VOLUME II
1. THE PERIODIC TABLE Translated by Ann Goldstein
2. THE WRENCH Translated by Nathaniel Rich
3. UNCOLLECTED STORIES AND ESSAYS: 1949-1980 Translated by Alessandra Bastagli and Francesco Bastagli
4. LILITH Translated by Ann Goldstein
5. IF NOT NOW, WHEN? Translated by Antony Shugaar

VOLUME III
1. COMPLETE POEMS Translated by Jonathan Galassi
2. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRADES Translated by Antony Shugaar
3. STORIES AND ESSAYS Translated by Anne M. Appel
4. THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED Translated by Michael Moore
5. UNCOLLECTED STORIES AND ESSAYS: 1981-1987 Translated by Alessandra Bastagli and Francesco Bastagli
Primo Levi in America
Robert Weil Notes on the Texts
Domenico Scarpa About the Translators

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Liveright Publishing for review purposes. ( )