If This Is a Man

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If This Is a Man (Se Questo è un Uomo) is a book by the Italian author Primo Levi. It describes his experiences in the concentration camp at Auschwitz during the Second World War.

If This Is A Man was rejected by Einaudi, the fashionable left-wing publishers in Levi's home city of Turin. A small publisher brought out the book in November 1947. Only 1,500 copies were sold. Levi had to wait till 1958 before Einaudi published it, in a revised form. This led to its translation into English in 1959, translation into many other languages and eventual acceptance as a classic.