These seventeen stories, first published in Italian between 1949 and 1986, demonstrate Levi's extraordinary range, taking the reader from the primal resistance of a captured partisan fighter to a middle-aged chemist experimenting with a new paint that wards off evil, to the lustful thoughts of an older man obsessed with a mysterious woman in a seaside villa. In the title story, Levi demonstrates his unerringly tragic understanding of the fragility of the universe through the tale of a pensive astronomer, terrified by the possibility that a long-dormant star might explode and reduce the entire planet to vapor. This remarkable new collection affirms Italo Calvino's conviction that Levi was "one of the most important and gifted writers of our time."

About the Author
Primo Levi (1919-1987) was an Italian chemist and writer, best known for his memoirs If This Is a Man and The Periodic Table. Ann Goldstein, the editor of The Complete Works of Primo Levi and the award-winning translator of Elena Ferrante's novels, is a former editor at The New Yorker. Alessandra Bastagli is the translator of Primo Levi's stories in A Tranquil Star and his essays in The Complete Works. She lives in New York.


Book Information
ISBN 9780393331615
Author Primo Levi
Format Paperback
Page Count 170
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 218g
Dimensions(mm) 203mm * 137mm * 13mm