This was the final book published by Levi before his death in 1987. It contains a kind of summation of his views on Hitlerian Germany, his experiences in the Auschwitz Arbeitslager and afterwards, and a continuation of some of the ideas he had introduced in earlier works (the title comes from a distinction he had made between two types of prisoners in a chapter of Survival in Auschwitz). This is a heartwrenching collection of essays written in Levi's typical tone, objective, piercing, and full of the deepest type of integrity. ( )

Maybe my favorite. An incredible summation of his writings and thoughts. A must-read for anyone who is a fan of his work. ( )

I love this work. In many ways, I found my beginning on the formal path of Philosophy here, and existentialism is well treated by Levi. More approachable and uplifting than most, it also have a fragile sense of hope which endures.

Another one of Levi's profound memoirs which speak to not only the horrors of the concentration camp, but to the moral "gray zone" found in all of us. We tend to look at things in terms of white and black -- good and evil; but sometimes, as in Levi's case, humans are faced with the truth that things they would not normally do are the only options for survival. This, to me, is levi's best work and should not be missed. ( )

Shortly after completing THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED, Primo Levi committed suicide. The matter of his death was sudden, violent and unpremiditated, and there were some who argue that he killed himself because he was tormented by guilt - guilt that he had survived the horrors of Auschwitz while others, better than he, had gone to the wall.

THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED is Levi's impassioned attempt to understand the 'rationale' behind the concentration camps, was completed shortly before his tragic death in 1987.

THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED dispels the myth that Primo Levi forgave the Germans for what they did to his people. He didn't and couldn't forgive. He refused, however, to indulge in what he called 'the bestial vice of hatred' which is an entirely different matter. The voice that sounds in his writing is that of a reasonable man...it warns and reminds us that the unimaginable can happen again. A would-be tyrant is waiting in the wings, with 'beautiful words' on his lips. The book is constantly impressing on us the need to learn from the past, to make sense of the senseless' PAUL BAILEY