The Double Bond Primo Levi

"Carole Angier has solved the almost intractable problems that Primo Levi sets for the modern biographer, with penetrating and audacious ingenuity. Using his own literary methods and complementing them, with intelligence and imagination, she gives us new insight into his character. His great mission was to bear witness during the last half of the twentieth century. Her inspired re-creation of his life and work will assist him to continue doing so well into the present century. It is a subtle and extraordinary achievement."—Michael Holroyd, author of Lytton Strachey "The Double Bond has the pace and grip of a thriller. I could hardly put it down from the start to finish. Primo Levi was a natural storyteller whose fearful experiences in Auschwitz and elsewhere made him a great writer, and one of the twentieth century's prime witnesses. It cost him all he had to give. Carole Angier explores the dark secrets of his life and work with humane and moving clarity. She uses the unknown and unknowable as key structural elements—like holes in lace—in a biographical design as rich, intricate and mysterious as the nature of the man it mirrors."—Hilary Spurling, author of The Unknown Matisse