A Man of Few Words: The Bricklayer of Auschwitz Who Saved Primo Levi

A Man of Few Words tells the remarkable true story of Lorenzo Perrone, the humble bricklayer who saved Primo Levi’s life in Auschwitz by secretly sharing food. Carlo Greppi traces Perrone’s quiet heroism and lasting friendship with Levi in this moving portrait of courage, dignity and enduring human connection. ‘Sheds light on an unsung hero … a fluent retelling.’

''[A Man of Few Words] is a meticulously researched biography.''

''Much to admire ... an intriguing study of Lorenzo Perrone, the bricklayer who helped the famous author survive Auschwitz.'' ''Lucid, carefully researched pages ... Greppi''s biography, from start to finish a marvel of sympathetic insight, is a valuable addition to Levi''s writings on the human infamy that was Auschwitz.'' ''This is a great book: scrupulously researched and superbly written.'' ''Read it twice, this splendid book: the first time to get to know Lorenzo and his story; the second time to get to know yourself and your memory.'' ''A thoroughly moving read. Out of utter degradation, this inspiring story emerges to remind us that the spark of human decency can never be crushed.'' ‘Levi’s greatest piece of luck in Auschwitz was meeting Lorenzo, who kept him alive when he was hanging on to life by a thread.’ ‘Nobody knows how much I owe that man’, Primo Levi said of his Italian compatriot Lorenzo Perrone, who saved his life at Auschwitz. ‘I could never repay him’. Each day for a period of six months, Perrone, who worked beside Auschwitz in desperate conditions, risked his own life to smuggle part of his own soup ration to Levi, quietly leaving the mess tin by a half-constructed brick wall. Without those extra five hundred calories, Levi could not have survived, and would probably not have written If This Is a Man, the first published account by a Holocaust survivor. In A Man of Few Words, Carlo Greppi pieces together the life of Lorenzo Perrone, a bricklayer from the Piedmontese town of Fossano, not far from Levi’s native Turin. Near-destitute and with minimal formal education, Perrone left very few traces of himself. Yet despite their stark differences – Levi was a middle-class chemist – their friendship survived the Holocaust and continued until Perrone’s tragic death. Levi never forgot Perrone. In every book he wrote, he mentions that he owes his life to a man named Lorenzo, and he returned persistently, in the last years of his life, to the man of few words who saved his life. Compassionate, worldly and prescient, Greppi brings us a story that has much to say about the world we live in today, about an individual who kept hope alive in one of the darkest times and places known to humankind.

• | Author: Carlo Greppi, Howard Curtis
• | Publisher: Saqi Books
• | Publication Date: Jan 23, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language: eng
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781908906618
• | ISBN-10: 1908906618