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

’Nobody knows how much I owe that man’, Primo Levi said of the bricklayer who saved his life at Auschwitz. ’I could never repay him.’ Levi was referring to Lorenzo Perrone, who - at great personal risk - smuggled food, letters and clothing to Levi and other prisoners. The soup might contain sparrows’ wings, prune stones, or even fragments of pulped newspaper, but it provided Levi with the 500 extra calories he needed to survive each day. Perrone said nothing as he left the mess tin by a half-constructed brick wall.

In A Man of Few Words, Carlo Greppi pieces together Levi’s saviour, a near-destitute labourer with minimal formal education. Despite their stark differences, Levi and Perrone’s friendship survived the Holocaust and continued until Perrone’s tragic death. Levi never forgot Perrone. As his friend withdrew from the world, Levi tried persistently to preserve the memory of this man of few words who had saved his life, but who left few traces of his own behind.

Compassionate, worldly and prescient, Greppi brings to light a universal story about an individual who kept hope alive in one of the darkest times and places known to man.

Carlo Greppi is an award-winning historian and
author. He is the author of fourteen books, including Un uomo di poche
parole (A Man of Few Words), which has been translated into six
languages and sold more than 20,000 copies in Italy.

Howard
Curtis is a British translator of French, Italian and Spanish fiction. He has
translated the works of Gianrico Carofiglio, Luis Sepúlveda, Beppe Fenoglio and
Georges Simenon, among others, and has won the John Florio Prize and the Premio
Campiello Europa for his translations.