Primo Levi at 100: If This Is a Man

To commemorate the centennial of the author’s birth, writers, performers, and scholars gather for a multilingual, full-length reading of his seminal memoir. 

“Many people—many nations—can find themselves believing, more or less consciously, that “every stranger is an enemy.””—Primo Levi, preface to If This Is a Man

In 1947, just three years after he was liberated from Auschwitz, Primo Levi published If This Is a Man, an unsparing account of his 11 months of internment in the death camp. The book had at first faced difficulty finding a publisher, and upon its initial publication, sales were modest. Yet ten years later, when it was re-published, his first-hand account of survival was embraced by an international audience. 

From the afternoon into the evening, one hundred years after Levi was born in Turin, Italy, readers will gather at The New York Public Library for a full-length recitation of If This Is a Man (also known as Survival in Auschwitz), sharing chapters aloud in some of the many languages into which his indelible work has been translated around the world. 

List of readers in formation: 
SoHyun Bae Korean
Debora Balardini Portuguese
Clémence Boulouque French
Fatma Bucak Turkish
Paloma Celis Carbajal Spanish
Roger Cohen English
Molly Crabapple English
Mohamed Ali Diriye Arabic
Michael Frank English
Jonathan Galassi English
Vít Hořejš Czech
Frank Hentschker German
Sherrilyn Ifill English
Revital Iyov Hebrew
Momoyo Kitaura Japanese
Nicole Krauss English
Berel Lang English
Stella Levi Italian
Elena Lozonschi Romanian
Chelsey Masterson English
Elidor Mëhilli Albanian
Erin Mizrahi English
Avram Mlotek English
Sam Norich English
Stanislao Pugliese English
Azra Raza English
Jack Sal English
Salvatore Scibona English
Parul Sehgal English
Mark Shapiro English
Heli Sirviö Finnish
Loukas Skipitaris Greek
Yuriy Tarnawsky Ukrainian
Magda Teter Polish
Jordi Torrent Catalan
John Turturro English
Kirmen Uribe Basque
Amir Vahab Farsi
Liselot Van Heijden Dutch
Lara Vapnyar Russian
Aleksandra Wagner Serbian
Jeanne Marie Wasilik English
Bob Weil English

We anticipate the reading to last approximately eight hours. Please feel free to register for one, two, or all three sections of the event.

Presented with Centro Primo Levi New York and the Italian Cultural Institute of New York.

The annual Joy Gottesman Ungerleider Lecture has been made possible by a generous grant from the Dorot Foundation.

FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED
For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. Non-registered guests will be admitted to the venue throughout the day, space permitting.

PRESS 
Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc.) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Sara Beth Joren at sarabethjoren@nypl.org. For all other inquiries, please contact publicprograms@nypl.org.

ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.